Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday. It's always relaxing for us, probably because we don't live near relatives, so we've never had the stress of putting on a big party. Still, we love the food, and I truly love cooking for Thanksgiving even though I don't care a lot about cooking in general. I enjoy playing with the china, silver, servingware & linens. The dining room looks wonderful with the new big window. The day's football games affected the guys' fantasy football standings, so they were up for the games and trash talking hilariously.

Our tradition is to start the day with a brief visit to the Perpetual Adoration chapel at our church to remind us of all that we're thankful for. When we came home, the turkey had been roasting for several hours, and the house smelled wonderful. That smell reminds me of all the Thanksgivings and Christmases of my childhood, and it puts me in a festive mood. DH & I took advantage of the weather and went for a great 20 mile bike ride. We saw the most fabulous shrubs covered in bright red berries:

When we came home, it was crunch time: the dance to get the side dishes prepared, the last minute table additions added, the gravy made, pots & pans cleaned, mess minimized, etc., etc. We ate, enjoyed, teased, discussed, ate some more, then waited for post-dinner lethargy to set in. DH & I went for a car ride later to enjoy the setting sun and the beautiful countryside. When we got home, a neighbor invited us over for coffee and dessert. It was a perfect day, but then all our Thanksgivings seem to be perfect days. It's the best holiday -- as underrated as Christmas is overrated.

And the scale says my weight is up only one pound today. That's manageable. I didn't derail my weight loss efforts!

Ann - We must have been posting our questions at the same time! Glad to hear your day went well. Ours did to, and I know that next year is going to be even easier now that I read your list of the desserts you served and I've decided that we'll all come to YOUR house next year! ,)

-Colleen

Hey, this thread wasn't showing when I posted on Colleen's earlier! What's up with that? Anyhoo, I just came back from the gym (yay for me!) and found this so I'll cut & paste my answer from the other thread:

It was great, thanks for asking. I also use a Reynolds bag, instead of precooking it on Wed as I first thought I would do, and it looked great and was moist & tasty.
I bought 2 cooking magazines to use as stocking stuffers this Xmas. I used both for recipes for the meal! I was very careful and didn't spill or wrinkle them before sticking them back in the Xmas gift box.

The highlight was skyping with my sister & her family in Europe. My 2 yo niece said later "I wanted to talk to Jean but she was busy looking for things on the computer". No, no, no! I was busy preparing food for the 11 people standing in my kitchen that's why I didn't get much face time! I'll have to skype with them again today while it's nice and quiet here.

For the first time in years, I ended up with a seat at the main dining room table and not the auxiliary table. Actually I prefer the auxiliary table but 4 guests, some newbies, sat down first (I don't do a seating chart - it's always a free for all). I think they thought of it as the kid's table and wanted relive their youth.

Well, originally I had not planned on a dinner. I thought that DH and I could go visit his mom and we'd have a nice, relaxing long weekend. Then my newlywed DD asked if I'd help her with a turkey, so I told her if she bought one, I'd show her how, but I wouldn't make the rest of the dinner. Fine with her.

Somehow that morphed into me making the whole 9 yards PLUS a tofu turkey alternative and vegetarian gravy. AND my son, his GF, her grandparents (and their dog). DD & her her DH and their 2 dogs.

DD helped me rinse the turkey and prep it for roasting then she was off in the other room most of the day. SIL helped me with most the rest.

Oh well, it was good. Then eldest DD, her BF & their dog came over in the evening and all the kids decided to stay the night so they could go shopping in the am. I woke this morning to find more dishes in the sink...seems the kids had late night cravings!

I'll be glad when they all go home and take their dogs with them. Love 'em all, but I'm getting a bit jealous of my (limited) free time.

Ours was quiet, with just the two of us and our dogs. We ended up with way too much food, but at least it will freeze. We tried a couple of new recipes this year and threw healthful eating out the window for the day. The bacon wrapped green bean bundles with sauce was amazing, and it was nice to make dinner rolls from scratch.

We did brave two stores briefly this morning, there was a good deal on a air compressor and nail gun set that will be nice to finish the bathroom with.

Is it sad that I was more excited to see the Home Improvement Ads than anything else?

Ann it sounds like overall you had a nice day, kids notwithstanding, but isn't that par for the course?! We all have such Rockwell expectations but end up with something more closely resembling the Simpsons...... sigh. Still I know you count your blessings.

We had a Thanksgiving without our sons, but they spent the day together in Salt Lake. Our college boy drove from CO to UT to be with his brother and knowing they were together made it easier for me. We were invited to join close friends and had a lovely time; great food, wonderful company, fabulous music (the host is an accomplished pianist) and rolled our way home late last night after way too much food! And today.... I did just what you did, to a T ! I did make my bed, but other than that, zip, zero, zilch in the way of productivity and it feels gooooood!

Had a GREAT day! DH & I did our customary 5 mile run thru a nearby scenic park after pulling the 24lb stuffed turkey out of the oven. Yes.....we have lots of leftovers!!!! Oh....and yes, I found time to answer a FREE CL add and picked up a really nice air conditioner for our MB for next summer!

Hold up. 20 mile bike ride, 5 mile run ... am I really seeing those two things on a thread about Thanksgiving? Pheeww, more power to ya ladies! :)

Our was very nice. There were 10 total. Turns out I really liked having everything later in the day instead of the normal 1:00 meal.

Yeah, well, we didn't have to host a big feast or travel, so we had the time. Also, you don't have to be in that good a shape to ride 20 miles, actually. Now running 5 miles is a different story :) THAT is impressive!

I'm just impressed you both went out and did something active. That's good! Lots of people (I know) stuff themselves silly and can't even roll off the couch. Either because of
a.)food coma b.)football c.) both. :D

This Thanksgiving gave us several firsts -- the nicest one was that it was the first time our family was all together in our new house . . . DD#2, her DH & two kids are living in the lower level, so I had "live-in help." DD#1 is 20 minutes away with her DS, and our DS, his wife and their 3 kids were here from 7 hours away. Kid Count: two 7-year-old girls, two 4-year old boys and 3-year-old g/b twins. Noisy, rowdy, chaotic to say the least, but fun.

We've been doing our turkey in an electric roaster for about the last ten years and every year love it more. It's done in short order, the meat is moist and flavorful, and it takes up no oven space. Only drawback is non-browned skin, but the other advantages more than make up for it. DSIL pretty much does the bird, bless him!

The new house comfortably absorbed the extra people -- 13 of us -- and the new kitchen was a dream. It's large, and no one got in anyone's way.

By next year I hope to have dining room chairs instead of the card table chairs we used this year, and living room furniture instead of just three mismatched old chairs!

In spite of the many, many difficulties of the past year, it's nice to reflect on the huge blessings I have. A pastor friend always says, "God is good, all the time." True even when times are difficult.

It was fun to hear about everyone's celebrations!!

Well, I know I am blessed when I got the call from my BIL's wife, saying she is the luckiest person in the world to have us as family.

We had such a wonderful dinner. Good people, good food. I love leaving a dinner where I want to bring everyone home with me because the day was too short.

My niece made mention that I was looking very stylish the last couple times she has seen me and I blamed it on our 'How not to look old thread!' (Of course, I admitted that I had splurged a tad on my wardrobe and hair - in celebration of Max's first paycheck, which meant a raise for me.

We have another wedding coming up so it was fun to talk weddings, dresses and posture while the family bartender was mixing some kind of drinks. LOL!

We spent the night at my MIL house and I got another wake up call. She is 85 and needs more help than she is getting. We must remember to use our dishwashers more as we age, not less. Also, dish soap should never live in the back of a cabinet, if you aren't using the dishwasher. Luckily, Safeway is really close. We stop by Safeway on our way home. We buy every thing we plan to eat at her house while we are there...

Amazing that the rest of her house is sparkling clean. I am going down after Christmas to bleach her dishes and silverware; throw out her expired food, etc.

All this said, do you know she is natural brown haired? Uh huh. She dresses nice too but her lower oven is now being used as storage. OK. After Christmas, I'll be on it.

I love my DH's family. They are wonderful. Informed, happy, giving, educated, appreciating, fun. How lucky are we? We had the best day.

It actually went really well and am looking forward to hosting again.

We hosted at our house this yr. (1st time cooking T Day dinner) for a total of 11 people and kids. Our 1st turkey came out a hair dry but that was because it cooked waaaaaaay faster than we'd anticipated.

I had everything prepped the night before - ingredients measured out & stored, table set so DH and I sort of relaxed for awhile before everyone came.

As soon as we started eating my MIL commented on how wonderful all of the food was which was amazing in my book. Not because my MIL is stingey w/ praise but I sometimes get the feeling that she is intimidated by mine and my families cooking abilities as MIL is admittedly not a very good cook. Usually that means that she doesn't often comment on my cooking. In fact I swear I recall hearing the word 'Marvelous' come out of her mouth.

She commented at the end what a wonderful time she had and again how good all of the food was. I'm not one to seek out praise but it did make me feel good because I want her to be comfortable w/ our differences. I know they make me appreciate her more.

I think that she even got over the 3PM dinner instead of her traditional 6PM dinner. I know DH said he preferred it at 3PM after it was all said and done.

I made extra stuffing and turkey and DH and I have been living on WaWa type Gobbler sandwich's.

Out of the mouths of babes: I made Magic Cookie Bars and when DH asked DS2 (3yrs old) if he wanted a Magic Cookie Bar DS2 shouted "ABRACADABRA!". Now he keeps asking for Abracadabra's.