Thanksgiving

At the last minute, we ended up hosting my husband's family for Thanksgiving this year. I was too busy cooking and hosting to take many pictures, but here's an idea of what our table looked like. Our Thanksgivings always include Turkey Notes, cranberry relish, all the usuals (like green bean casserole, corn bake, loaded mashed potatoes and gravy, candied sweet potatoes, bread dressing, warmed spiced apple sauce, baked beans, a vegetable tray, a pickle tray, and LOTS of pies.) 

Pies are really what Thanksgiving is all about to me... after the turkey, of course! We usually have apple, pecan, cherry, pumpkin, vanilla cream, and chocolate cream pies. I've made an apple sauce pie once or twice and a sugar cream pie too. This year I only made one pie, and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law brought pies. It felt wrong, but my husband convinced me that being pregnant and cooking the rest of the meal and so forth was enough work.

My family can thank my mother for the pie tradition. She always served lots of pies (several of each kind) and frequently took special requests for pies from extended family members. (We always had large, extended family gatherings for Thanksgiving, often inviting those who had no one else to celebrate with, like an imbalanced lady named Frances who was pretty much an honorary family member.) Unlike me, my mom usually made minced meat pie. I don't think in all those years I had the courage to try it. The name was too daunting. I think she also made a cashew pie and a peanut pie at least once. That gives you an idea of the special requests she received. 

One thing my family always served when I was growing up that I have only pulled off once was "chicken and noodles." We'd make home made ribbon noodles and serve them in a homemade chicken gravy with pieces of chicken mixed in. How I loved those extra thick noodles! Maybe I can pull them off next year. 

My kids like to decorate for Thanksgiving. We have a cornucopia window cling that can be assembled in many ways. They take turns putting up. And we have a ceramic turkey my mother-in-law made. They like to have fancily folded napkins or to make napkin rings too. This year, my oldest son made some out of craft foam that were decorated with lovely leaf shapes. It was his idea and he executed the whole project himself. They worked flawlessly. My oldest daughter wanted to make a centerpiece, but our table was so long and her bouquet so fragile that we ended up putting her creation on a side cupboard. She gathered berries, dried seed heads, leaves and branches to make the arrangement to the right. Together they both strung pine cones that they collected from the light fixture in a sort of fall chandelier. Their original scheme was better than what we had to settle for, but the lights were too hot to have string hanging as close to them as they had planned.

Although Thanksgiving went off without a hitch, the aftermath wasn't fun. My girls both turned up with a terrible stomach virus back-to-back once the visitors left, and vomited and ran fevers. The clean-up was unpleasant, especially with the pregnant belly impeding maneuvers. And the fear of everyone getting the ick was no fun to deal with either. Surprisingly no one else contracted the projectile hurling, although my oldest boy refused to eat for several days and said his stomach hurt. I'm thankful that I didn't get ill, as throwing up with a huge belly is quite difficult and painful. Plus I got to enjoy turkey tetrazzini. MMMM.