Our Wonderful Thanksgiving Weekend

We had such a happy Thanksgiving.  Steve's parents came up for the weekend and we so enjoyed having their company.  Mom, Tom, and Geoff joined us for Thanksgiving dinner.  And this year, Lily and I made Thelda the Thankful Turkey to get us all remembering our blessings.

 Thelda is made out of a paper bag, old scrapbook paper, and 2 googly eyes.  She was perched atop our entertainment stand for most of November.  We would feed Thelda slips of paper with things that we are thankful for.  I'd try to remind everyone each day to not forget to feed Thelda.  Steve's mom particularly liked the name Thelda because she has an aunt by the same name.  On Thanksgiving day, we brought Thelda to the table and after our meal, we read all the things we were thankful for.  My favorite was "I'm Thankful for Grandpa's ice cream" (Lily). 

This year, I thought it would be fun to break the feast up into 2 meals.  So, at lunch time we served salads and finger foods (including the deviled eggs as requested by Lily).  We put the turkey in at lunch time and mom baked it in a roasting bag.  It was her first turkey ever and it turned out beautifully delicious (I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it!). 

While we waited for the turkey to bake, the men watched football and the girls all made turkey hats then got bundled up and took a walk up the street.  We were greeted by some friendly horses and a funny donkey.

 When we got back, the turkey was ready to start resting, while we made the side dishes.  We made the mashed potatoes, rolls, stuffing, veggies, and gravy.  The gravy turned out to be more difficult to make than the turkey.  It just didn't want to thicken.  Mom added a roux, then more roux, then more roux, all the while simmering it trying to get it to reduce, 45 minutes later it still wasn't thick enough, so I suggested we add mashed potatoes to it.  She loved the idea.  We added 2 big scoops of potatoes before it satisfied her thickness standard.  Then we brought it to the serving counter and called everyone over.  Steve came over and pointed to the gravy and asked, "What's that?"  I guess most turkey gravies are brownish, ours was more whitish.  I shot him a look of, "don't ask."  But it was too late.  Then he reminded us all of the SNL crystal gravy commercial, a spoof on crystal pepsi.  Although our gravy looked different it still tasted good.

We said a prayer of thanks and then enjoyed the feast of traditional foods.  Well, most of us enjoyed it, there's one 4 year old that thought this dinner looked yucky.

Then a few hours after dinner settled in, it was dessert time.  We had my homemade chocolate swiss-roll cheesecake, and also a pumpkin pie, minus the pumpkin pie.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize in time that the frozen pie we bought was not yet baked.  But that's okay.  There was plenty of cheesecake for all.  And the pumpkin pie was good the next day.

Later that weekend, we put away thanksgiving, and put up the Christmas tree.  It was so wonderful to have Steve's parents here to help and enjoy this tradition with us!  Steve and his dad set up the tree so it was straight and sturdy, then Steve strung it with lights.  Steve's mom helped the girls put the ornaments on.