Thanksgiving recap

I want to jot down some thoughts before I forget everything!

Thanksgiving 2021 was much better than 2020. We were able to include a few friends plus our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter #2 were able to join us this year. Last year, they had covid!

I bought two new tablecloths at Target and they were $15 each - score! I have lots of tablecloths but not two that match. I need the 120" length on the big table and I bought the shorter one and folded it in half for the card table. 

In case you can't tell, I love pilgrims. I have quite a few pairs. I love Thanksgiving. The centerpiece below wasn't quite finished. I added pumpkins on the back side and more leaves.

Mark smoked a 14 pound turkey for us on his Pit Barrel Cooker. It was really good. I also bought a ham from the Honeybaked Ham store and we enjoyed both.

I think this was my third time to host Thanksgiving. I finally nailed the dressing. I used a blend of my mother's recipe and Mark's mother's recipe and it was just right. I forgot to take a picture but we make it in muffin tins so each piece has a little crust. I hope I can recreate it next year. My mother-in-law doesn't put sage in hers and I love sage. I used 2 pans of cornbread, about 6 biscuits, a bag of Pepperidge Farm seasoned stuffing (looks like croutons). I did the onion and celery in the food processor so that you don't have chunks but you have great flavor. I also added poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper, along with broth and eggs. I greased the muffin tins the old fashioned way - I used Crisco. Some of the first ones stuck but for round two I sprayed with pam. Next year, I need to use Crisco and pam. They popped right out.

I made the gravy, a green bean casserole, and deviled eggs and everyone brought something. Everything was delicious.

Here we all are around the table. The third person on the left is my sweet 96 year old mother-in-law. We weren't sure we could get her here and in the house but we did. Our daughter went and spent the day with her since we didn't have a sitter and helped her get ready. We had plenty of men to help her in and out of the house.

Our good friends joined us and they brought a hostess gift for me - a giant bottle of Grey Goose! It is my favorite.

Our daughter and her family stayed from Wednesday through Friday morning. She and our daughter-in-law took the girls to a "you paint" pottery place on Wednesday afternoon. I can't wait to see their finished projects.

Granddaughter #2 pictured below with our giant cat, Harvey. Look how her little pony tail looks sort of like his ear - both on the right side. She lay down beside him and said, "Can you say meow?"

After they left, I rested and puttered. I cleaned out two drawers in the bedroom - my sock drawer and my earring drawer. Both are very organized now. I also straightened up our closet but I'm not going to show a picture because it is not very neat. We share a walk in closet and it is just not quite big enough. We make it work.

On Saturday, we did a couple of errands together. Mark had a gift card at a local beer place called Hop City. Hop City just happens to be down the block from one of my favorite places, Frontera. While he was beer shopping, I was looking at all of the fun things at Frontera. My family is always talking about Big Foot so I had to snap a photo and send to them! They had Big Foot to go in your yard in 3 different sizes.

We also went to Trader Joe's. I love that store.

On Sunday, we went to church and then I taught Sunday School. The lesson was on Tamar -- and we talked about how God used all sorts of people in the lineage of Jesus. Jesus didn't come into a perfect world for perfect families.

We then headed to my mother-in-law's house. She lives just a few minutes from our church. We had packed up all of the leftovers from Thursday and had them in the fridge. We reheated everything and ate turkey and dressing and gravy one more time.