Thanksgiving Recap and Christmas Memories

The table awaits. 

The table is graced. (BTW -I am not really that tall.  I was sitting on a kitchen stool!)

The aftermath.

The cousins.

The turkey and dressing may be gone but the glow of time spent with family and friends remains.  My sister and brother-in-law departed on Sunday after a week of work and play.  They are the best sous-chefs in the universe.  I could not have pulled off the meal without their help in the kitchen and around the house.  My husband and boys were on tidying and cleaning detail and they, too, took care of business effortlessly.  Thank you everyone!  Our guests made the whole process worthwhile - especially ending the evening with howls over the game Balderdash.  We learned words like whisterpoop and baldersnatch and the memories of our invented definitions still make me grin and chuckle.  The kids were angels and finished their evening playing in the yard well past dark.  


In my post about brining a turkey I had mentioned I hadn't made gravy with those drippings yet.  Well, the gravy turned out to be delicious and practically made itself.  Plus, by using the frozen drippings (from the turkey made in advance) combined with the drippings on Thanksgiving day, we actually had more gravy than we needed--- for once.   And lest you think the day went off without a hitch, let me confess - we awoke on Thanksgiving morning to find that the brining bag had dripped a slow leak overnight and we ended up having to toss all the veggies, sanitize the entire fridge and run to the grocery store to buy fresh vegetables!  Moral of the brining story is to brine in a stock pot not a bag!  Oh well, lesson learned and the turkey still turned out to be delicious and moist and my favorite turkey ever.  


And so, like many others, we have made the transition from Thanksgiving to Thanksgetting Advent and Christmas.  :)  


This is our tree in the family room.  The presents underneath are the wrapped Christmas books I posted about here.

Our kids' tree.  This is a tradition my mother started.  The tree with the colored lights gets all the fun ornaments that the kids make at school as well as the new ornament I give them each year.  I write their names and the year on the bottom and when they are grown they will have a set of Christmas memories to hang on their own trees.  Target(no surprise) has great selection of ornaments that reflect personal interests like sports, animals or characters the child currently loves. This is the tree I see while I work at my computer, listening to Christmas music on Pandora.  Love it!

This little elf hung on my childhood Christmas tree beginning almost forty years ago.  Each time I hang it up I am taken back in time to those snowy, cozy Christmas nights when my Grandmother would sleep over at our house even though she lived in town.  Little did I know she and my mother were up all night drinking coffee and wrapping last minute presents!  


Do you do the Elf on the Shelf tradition?  We never have but this website is cute.

I hope the glow of your Thanksgiving memory carries you through to Christmas when we share the best gift of all together - the birth of our Lord and Savior - Jesus Christ.  May his peace and love be reborn into your heart and home again this year.




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