Preparation for Thanksgiving

Hello my friends!  For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful day full of family, friends, delicious food and happiness.  A new addition to our table decor is a pair of Pilgrims that Kristi found for us at a thrift store.  I love them!

I've enjoyed seeing my little display of Thanksgiving things on the table, but tomorrow I will put most of it away, put a fresh tablecloth on and begin to set the table with my turkey dishes, crystal goblets and silverware.  (I guess I should explain, we were going to our son's house for dinner, but his wife's father passed away a few weeks ago so we offered to host and they accepted.)

We picked up a pretty little bouquet for the table.. 

Yesterday we went over the menu that I had saved on my computer from last year and of course, we're making the same things... it's about tradition.  Then we headed off for lunch at Red Lobster -- clam chowder and a salad with grilled shrimp on top.. yummmm.  Then we girded our loins.. yes we did.. and headed to Winco, our favorite big grocery store.  We have 3 bags of things awaiting our cooking frenzy of tomorrow and the fridge is full of fresh ingredients.  

This fresh 21+ pound darling is awaiting Dayle's magic touch.  He makes the sage-y, veggie studded bread stuffing, stuffs the turkey and gets it in the oven after putting butter and herbs under the skin on the breast.

We needed butter, of course.  It goes on the turkey, saute the veggies for dressing, in the candied yams I make from scratch, on the rolls, etc.  I love that it's Oregon made butter.

Dayle also makes homemade orange cranberry sauce with a recipe I found a few years back.  You use orange marmalade and cook it down.  This also is Oregon produced.  Most of the ingredients we purchased are locally produced.  Funny story, Caleb wanted to eat a cranberry and although he was warned that they would be sour, I said, go ahead and give him one.  He chewed it up and with a funny look on his face said.. "It's not THAT sour!".  LOL!

I usually do a blog post AFTER Thanksgiving - but I decided that I wanted to say hello and show you a bit of what it takes to put on a big family feast.  Well, there will be only be 7 of us.  We've had 30ish people here in the past, but families grow and get too big and then separate out for their own dinners with their own kids and grandkids.  But I do treasure the times when both of my parents, all of my siblings, their spouses, their kids and our kids gathered here in our old farmhouse. 

Many years I wrote a poem when the whole family was coming for Thanksgiving and we would be using a table that I rescued from my grandparent's farm buildings -- please click and read it - you'll have to scroll down, it's under photos of the table and the kitchen Queen that I also rescued.  Click HERE

For those of you who don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I am asking a favor - will you close your eyes right now and give thanks for all the positive things in your life?  Don't think about the challenges you face, think of the home you have, the warm and dry bed, the food on your table and your friends and family.

((hugs)), Teresa :-)