My Thanksgiving was last month, and I worked. My schedule worked out much better for having hockey tournament weekends off than for having holidays off! LOL. But since it's just me here, with no family, at least the boys can go to their other Gramma's and have a big feast. I am thankful for my job, my home and my health (and that of my family). I am thankful as my older son's teacher said last year, that we won the lottery and were born in Canada. :)

Jillius! Eight of those pies look amazing!! Two of the last three years, my older son requested a birthday pie instead of cake. :)

@rebunky

You're looking at 4 pumpkin, 3 apple, 2 blueberry, 2 cherry, and 1 mince. There was also one more mince in the oven at the time as well.

@mgmum

Ha! Not a pumpkin pie fan? Me neither!

Actually, I had the same brain wave as your son 3 years ago! Usually my mom makes pie only at Thanksgiving. I cannot believe it took me multiple decades to think of requesting pie for my birthday, but I am so pleased with myself for having that stroke of genius at all. Now we have her pie twice a year!

We had a kitchen flood the day before Thanksgiving last year and cooked by borrowing neighbors' ovens.

We still don't have a kitchen but it's slowly moving along and hopefully by Christmas.

My in laws still expect home cooked items from me on Thanksgiving so I will be roasting Brussel sprouts in my Breville for 15 people.

I'm thankful for my health slowly coming back and look forward to the day that the kitchen is done.

I love reading what you all are doing for Thanksgiving. It makes me smile. I won't be in my new kitchen until January at the earliest, so I'm dreaming of next year with new ovens, range top and tons of prep space. In the meantime, we're living in the granny unit at my sister's. Tonight I'm roasting turkey thighs and wings for a big pot of stock. Our friends always request LOTS of gravy with the leftovers they take home. I wish we had someone in our crowd who made pies like Jillius's mom. Wow.

Today I'm thankful for the internet.

The internet has allowed me to find new recipes to try, new stores to shop at, directions to new places, new ideas!!!

If it weren't for the internet, I would still be stuck relying on the yellow pages to find out info on local stores and either using the outdated books at the library or relying on word of mouth.

Thank god for the internet and its rapid dissemination of information to the masses!!

Today (and every day!) I'm thankful for my wife. My partner and best friend for 33 years, I simply cannot imagine life without her. Over the last 4 years, while I built the barn and the house, she is the only one who never asked, "When will it be done?" Can you imagine being that patient?

Stock and gravy- two of my favorite topics! We have chicken and turkey often, and I usually smoke them on the grill. We save the carcasses in the freezer, and after we get a good supply, we make a big pot of stock. We freeze it, and use if for all sorts of things, from soup base to gravy to making rice. When I smoke a turkey, I put a drip pan under it, and the drippings are used for gravy along with the homemade stock. Yumm- liquid gold!

I am pretty much thankful for everything. Life is good. I'm especially thankful the sun is shining today. We had a stretch of heavy, much needed rain and Lucy, my old dog, and I could really use a good walk in the sun. Just waiting for the sun to warm more of the chill off.

There was a time, about a year ago, when we has just closed on our house and I said to my husband "I hope we'll be in before thanksgiving of next year!" and he told me he thought I was crazy. Little did I know how right he would be! We're looking at a June move-in, so so we are not hosting this year... headed off to the in-laws for the long weekend, dogs in tow. Can't complain, though, they have a huge beautiful farmhouse on 10 acres with a fireplace, hot tub, wine cellar... it's not the worst place to spend a holiday! I am thankful that I have a loving husband and family and that we are lucky enough to be able to embark on renovating a house in NYC- what a blessing to be working on our forever home in the city we love.

www.greenwoodframed.com

"we adopted a puppy"

oh and what a precious looking little critter! what is his/her name? How old?just beautiful! ah, what big ears he/she has for the puppy size body! the better to hear every noise in the neighborhood... lol! how wonderful that sweet little baby has found a good loving home!

That's what I always tell my girl - she's one lucky pup to have found me to be her mom. she is so spoiled now, but that wasn't her 7 months of life prior to me rescuing her from CL!

Steph - He is a Berger Picard- the breed used in Because of Winn-Dixie. If you haven't seen it - what you see is what you get except those don't smell like doggy(no lanolin) and don't tend to be afraid of thunder. We have a CD with lots of sounds and he is fine with them

His call name is Gatsby(The Great Gatsby) and his registered name is AllStars Leonardo DiCaprio.

He is so cute although we are tired of being human chew toys. He did better today and lots of licks.

We are smitten with Gatsby.

hmmm, what am i thankful for?? so many things: my BIL is finished he's treatment for mantle cell lymphoma and is doing Very Well!!!!., my 2 college children will be home for Thanksgiving., haven't really seen them 2 much since august., DH is working a lot of overtime, yay for the bank account, but it does wipe him out :(., but as we say "Thank God you are working"., it always slows down after the New year!! planning a trip to a college bowl game, just waiting for the destination!! my family is healthy, if u don't have your health nothing else matters. my growing Faith....

dinner is not a my house but at my sister's., but i cook the big turkey, sweet potatoes., i make the cranberry sauce, stuffing and little meatballs for the escarole soup also known as "Italian wedding soup". my one sister makes the turkey breast., broth for soup, mashed potatoes, other sister does salad, bread and green bean casserole ...we all bring desserts and alcohol of choice....

Congrats on Gatsby, he is Adorable., best of luck with him!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!!!!

Since I got this bug in my ear to make better dining choices, I've been cooking.
No Reese's in 14 meals. (EIGHT HUNDRED CALORIES A DAY!) No sugar withdraw. Lots and lots of grains & low salt stuff. Had no idea how much I salted!

Anyway, I have Thanksgiving off, which is weird. I've been invited to a yoga student's home for dinner, which is also weird. Haven't seen her in 10 years. But I'm going. I'm forcing myself out of my {shell} hermitism (I made that up) because I never, ever go out. Work and home. So I'm taking a green salad. I like salad.

In the meanwhile, I've cooked and frozen vats of spaghetti sauce, a 5- sometimes 6-grain dish, okra & stewed tomatoes with jambalaya spices, beef stroganoff, a knock-off Carrabba's spicy sausage and lentils, and a monstrous, 3 cabbage & chicken thing. Got more to do.

I figure I can have these on Friday as left overs.

I'm grateful for my home, my kitties, the ability and energy to work, our health, my family's health, and everything that keeps us going.

I'm glad for you guys, who make me laugh and our encouragement.
Thanks!

"He is so cute although we are tired of being human chew toys"

I know the feeling. I was asked a few times about the scabs on my arms and scratches on my legs... I had to admit to 'puppy abuse'. No one locked her up for it tho - well, I did once when her teeth skid across my arm - she had to sleep outside in her pen for 2 nights. She hasn't done anything like that since - that was 2 yrs or so ago.

But they are so worth the irritations... love the ears on your puppy.

Never saw the movie but looked it up online with pic of dog on it - yep, looks like yours!

And I am grateful for her - she's great entertainment and keeps me moving along. She also gives me 'someone' to talk to who doesn't (usually) talk back or have a differing opinion.

Since this thread has 'gone to the dogs', so to speak, I'm thankful today for my little friend, Daisy. I got Daisy from craigslist over three years ago from a couple who couldn't afford to keep her. My wife was still working and living in FL, while I was in SC, camping in the barn. Daisy is the perfect companion, fully trained and an easy keeper. She would hang out with me all day, never running off or getting into mischief. She is allegedly part Carolina Dog, an old feral breed from the Low Country of SC, but I think she is mostly an RGS (Random Genetic Sampling).

Today, I am thankful for my children. They can be loud and messy but truly, they are all so wonderful and sweet.

A lot of times I don't get as much done as I want to, but that's only because if they ask me for cuddle time, I always do it! They are the world's best snugglers!

a2gemini

holy crap that puppy is CUTE CUTE CUTE!!!

I am similarly thankful for our "kids" (pups) even though they're basically the worst.

I present Pimm-

And Bruno!

And together (they can't take a nice picture...)

www.greenwoodframed.com

And I am thankful for my parents who raised 4 kids. My dad left us 4 years ago and my mother's health is failing.

I visited her before the holiday to spend some quality time.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Mush - your Daisy is cute and bless you for rescuing her. I bet she is thankful for a good home.

Today, I'm thankful for our adopted community. Despite being a rural area in the deep South, with few newcomers, we've been welcomed like family. When I first started, carving an opening in the woods while living in an old pop-up camper, our neighbors would periodically carry a hot meal over for me. Our little church has welcomed us as well, with several offers of a warm place to stay if we got too cold in the camper. Men from the church were there to help me set the roof trusses, and to unload the truck when we moved from FL.

Despite being 62 years old, and having lived in a number of places, I find myself more comfortable living here than anywhere else, as if I were always 'meant' to live here.

The Thanksgiving cooking officially starts today! I'll get the first of two bread starters going, and bake the pumpkin to get it ready for pie filling.

I am Thankful for our family's health. Plus, The nest will be full again!!! One is home already and the other is flying in late tomorrow. The kitchen will wait for another day ;^)

And of course, our jobs. The first turkey dinner I ever made was when I was 9. Mom had to work and I was the oldest by far. Just glad we had a turkey that year. I am thankful those days are over.

Grocery shopping and pie making tomorrow!

I am thankful for having a roof over my head and two loved ones (hubby and Teddy the pup) that loves me unconditionally. I am thankful that they listen to me whine and rant about nothing at all sometimes. We are so looking forward to sleeping in and eating well! There's Teddy for you.

Well, tonight as I get ready for another workday tomorrow although I am still physically and emotionally exhausted from last Sunday's shift, I remind myself that I really am grateful to not only have the job but grateful to still be able to still do the job.

Your "babies" are all adorable. I put oldest kitty (20 years) to rest last week. She actually wasn't a very loving cat until the past 2 years or so. I think she was getting kitty alzheimers and forgot that she hated us.

"kitty alzheimers and forgot that she hated us"

that cracked me up! poor kitty baby! I'm sure she got her kitty wings even if she didn't like you all - lol!

love all the pics of the furbabies! they're all so beautiful. all those little faces full of love and needing love in return - glad they all have safe homes!

Today, I'm thankful for my parents. We don't always see eye to eye but they are good people who (I think) raised me right. They have always been very generous with their love and tried to do what they feel is best. Even though we are so very different, we are also a family who looks out for and takes care of their own.

Gosh, that comes across kind of negative but truthfully, I wouldn't have willingly chosen to live next door to them for the rest of their lives if it were actually bad. :). I love and respect my parents very much.

It doesn't seem negative, Texas, it's real. All parents do what they think is best at the time and it's only with hindsight we see things differently. And "best practices" change. I wasn't told not to eat or to eat peanut butter while pregnant, but I did every day before, during, after, while nursing and almost every day since. My kids aren't allergic, but I don't think that's because of anything I did or didn't do. I think it's lucky! LOL

Okay, I'm going to brag on myself right now, and my accomplishment of the day. I'm thankful for my little house and that through brute force and determination I managed to remove some super ugly, cobbled together (with 3-4 inch nails!!!) shelves in my furnace room. And after I got rid of all the scraps at the dump, I cleaned off the floor and laid down a bunch of my click vinyl tiles! YAY, me! It's not perfect, but it's really good. Now, I need to move some stuff out of the laundry room so I can carry the tile through under the stairs and into the laundry room. That's going to be a bit of a chore, so it will wait until my next set of days off. Now I have to go gather up the leaves as it's pretty nice out and a whole bunch fell off during the last windstorm. Then, tomorrow, I'll go have a rest at work. LOL.

I'm also thankful for my weird fat cats. They are by far the strangest cats I've ever had, and the fattest, but I do love them. They are not at all cuddly, unlike my previous deceased cat, an orange tabby who used to follow me around the house, but they show their affection in their own strange ways. LOL I do like dogs, but I won't have one because I work 10 hour shifts and I don't think it's fair to the poor dog. Everyone's dogs are super cute!!

Yikes- I almost missed today's thanks! Today, I'm thankful for my family, and my wife's family. A number of them are headed into town today and tomorrow, so we get to show the house off to newcomers. This will be our first Thanksgiving in our finished home. I already got the pies knocked out, and tomorrow, we really get cookin'!

I am thankful that Texas_Gem has taken on the task of starting a discussion thread every week. I look forward to it.

I am thankful for a roof over my head, food to eat, warm clothing. I am thankful to be alive! Thankful for our beautiful world. God has blessed me.

Raee- Thank you!! :)

Mgmum- you can't just brag and not show a picture!! ;)

Mushcreek- I have to say, I thought what I did was impressive but every time I read a post of yours I'm even more awed. I'm so happy that you have finished and you get to celebrate Thanksgiving in your new kitchen (which is totally awesome by the way!!)

Which brings me to today. Today, I'm thankful for having my wonderful kitchen! It has taken 2 years, and a lot of support and help from family and friends but it is done!

Some of you may not know, but my house is actually my childhood home that I helped my parents build. A few years ago, we decided to purchase it from my parents and thus started (what I feel like is) the slowest remodel in the world!

But the original house, when I helped my parents build it as a child, we finally finished it and moved in 2 weeks before Thanksgiving so Thanksgiving has always been a special holiday for my family. How fitting that, 20+ years later, it also holds a special significance to me as the first holiday since I finished. :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful turkey day tomorrow!!

Looking at the forecast, I will apologize now if I don't post in the next few days. We are supposed to get hit with a severe ice storm tomorrow night and ice storms tend to knock out power. Good thing I have a well stocked pantry to get by on. ;)

Today I am especially thankful for my in laws, who are excellent and generous hosts and are always willing to provide us with a serene place with which to escape the city and stress of this project.

Plus, look at this joint!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am thankful for my health and this year have had many reminders that it is not to be taken for granted; for my husband and my kiddos and my furry friend who indeed matches my kitchen. I am also thankful for freedom. Freedom to go about my business, to make my own choices, to worship, to speak freely. We are pretty spoiled to say the least.

Today I am thankful for the simple things of only having to prepare salad, a dessert and rolls! I too am not a pumpkin pie lover but I found this pumpkin bar recipe with cream cheese frosting (how can you go wrong with that?) and it's pretty tasty! I am also thankful for the internet which provides so much information (despite it's dangers) and that I can with ease 'beam up' how long to cook hard boiled eggs! It also allows us to share with others of similar kitchen passions from across the world. How cool is that?

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Texas-oh no! I hope it passes you by. We had 2 snow days already last year at this time. This year we have rain and 50 degrees. Very drab but I can still see green grass so I'll take it!

So today, here in S. MD, between DC and Annapolis, it's going to be in the mid 60s. Yesterday I repotted 5 Japanese maples and would LOVE to stay home and work on the 30 more I should do.

But I forced myself to accept a very nice invitation to dinner from an old yoga student. I actually thought the email was a mistake, that I'd been on some list or something. I never go anywhere and usually back out at the last minute, so I'm not letting myself.

I'm kind of grateful I had a Reese's cup revelation. Or perhaps a Slap of Sense this last week. No sugar withdrawal, dropping 4 lbs. (sure, probably water, but 4 lbs. nonetheless) and actually cooking something to eat in the house. Part of accepting this invitation is to make a change in my very solitary life. I'm grateful for the timing.

I'm grateful for my sisters. They're in MI, but since my mom died in 2013, we've made a concerted effort to get together. My middle sister moved from VA back to MI, which made her happy. I'm grateful they're both in one place now, and I don't have to feel guilty about not driving an hour across town to see her. LOL! How's that for making it about me?

I'm very grateful not only for my job, but that at this stage in my life I love it. Crazy, but I do. It's enabled me to keep my home, and to actually get some thing done this year. I'm actually also grateful that along with these life changes I'm trying to make, I see it's time for me to move on and probably go back into management. My inner voice is going to get myself fired and I just can't have that. Grateful to recognize it!

My kitty babies. They take turn sleeping on me if I sit down to do some Boob Tubing. They keep me warm and give me purpose. For many years I got out of bed in the morning because I needed to keep a roof over their head. I'm grateful for them.

Funny. I actually wake up grateful every morning. Despite the craziness that's happened to me, I'm one of the luckiest/blessed people in the world I think. Healthy, smart, look young enough to get by in my business, Energizer Bunny energy, and if I do say so myself, pretty darned funny. I have my babies, my home, and many other advantages many people in the world don't have or enjoy.

Everyone take care. Love your people and your pet-babies. Life's very short and the time we spend together shouldn't be full of dread and trepidation that some experience. Just take a breath and be grateful you have them. Or at least, that you can go home quickly. LOL!

Happy Thanksgiving my friends.

This morning my 4 year old helped me make pumpkin muffins with cream cheese icing for breakfast.

No one in the family likes pumpkin pie but these muffins are delicious!!

It is cold and rainy here right now, later tonight it will transition to freezing. Hubby is standing outside tending to the smoker with the turkey in it. I'm about to start on my side dishes and appetizers but I wanted to say my daily thanks first.

Today, I'm thankful for GW and all my GW friends. You didn't think I was going to forget about you guys right? ;)

You have all been so wonderful, encouraging me to keep going when I was ready to throw in the towel, sharing your advice and wisdom and making me laugh!

Thank you friends, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christine, I'm so glad you accepted the invitation, I hope you have a good day.

I'm thankful for 15 years with this fabulously friendly and happy guy. And for time off today so we can say goodbye to him.

LWO- I'm so sorry. But, like you said, you had 15 years with him and he with you. He has had a wonderful life.

Christine way to allow yourself to step out of your comfort zone. I hope you have a very nice dinner and time of fellowship. Congrats on the 4 lbs water or not it is an accomplishment.

LWO-so sorry you are losing one of your companions. 15 years is a good run, I hope you find comfort in the memories.

texas- the muffins look bakery made! Way to go!

Jillius, how many people come to your house for Thanksgiving to eat all those pies? I thought we had a big family!

It is almost 11 o'clock, the day is done. All of my guests left happy and well fed.

Thanksgiving was indeed a success!!!

Though the "first stage" of my remodel was finished in February 2014, the entire space wasn't useable for a big family gathering until today.

The dining room, with the table set for 10.

Additional seating at the island for 6.

Appetizers on the wet bar

Meal laid out on the buffet

Desserts on the buffet

The pantry counter served as extra counter space for the coffee maker and desserts before they were presented. Plus the beverages were in the pantry fridge.

When I started planning my remodel, I had 2 seperate goals in mind. One was the overall daily function and useability of the space; which I've been able to enjoy immensely over the past two years; the other was hosting large family get togethers, as I am the primary host for these.

To some, they only need that a few times a year and they don't want to design a kitchen around it. For me, my immediate family (parents, sibling, kids) is 11 right now; but sure to grow. With 11 birthdays, plus Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, July 4th etc, we have something at LEAST once a month and instead of spending the days or weeks leading up to the event trying to figure out how I was going to coordinate the food with the ovens and having a space to present it, I designed my kitchen to function not only on a daily basis for a family of 6 but also on a monthly basis for hosting get togethers.

Today was the first time I was able to use ALL the elements of my kitchen and pull off, if I may say so myself, the best Thanksgiving I've hosted in years!!

I had the appetizers ready at 12 o'clock and then, thanks to 3 ovens and a five burner stove, I didn't have to play the side dish suffle game. ;) I was able to relax and enjoy the day with my family until 1:30 when I started prepping the side dishes using my various ovens/burners so that everything would be done and fresh (not reheated) at once.

Sure, the space STILL isn't finished, I need to put up the shoe molding on the cabinets and paint the interior doors white, but, the SPACE was 100% useable and it was awesome!!! It was everything I had hoped it would be. Everything I dreamed about for YEARS and it turned out perfect!!

I hope everyone else had a Thanksgiving as awesome as mine was!!

Texas_Gem, thanks for starting this topic. I've enjoyed reading it every day and counting the many blessings in my life while getting to know all of you. I have a lot to be thankful for this year. First, I'm thankful to be able to repair all the falling apart things in my house and do a substantial remodel. On the lighter side, In spite of having to cook in my sister's kitchen while mine is under construction, all three of us cooks managed to get along peaceably. On the more serious side, we celebrated with wonderful friends, one of whom has just come through a melanoma diagnosis and successful surgery. We are so thankful it looks as though treatment won't require chemo and radiation. I'm also more thankful than I can say for my sister living next door and for my parents who live here half the year. I've designed my new kitchen with similar goals to yours: day to day function and at least monthly family gatherings. I love seeing your kitchen working the way you've dreamed it would. Next year, I hope to have the same experience.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

@mrspete

We had 30 people come this year (family and friends).

Because my mom's pie is famous, though, most people save room and have multiple pieces after dinner and also take slices home. We also have people who don't come to dinner who show up for pie afterwards or are sent slices of pie afterwards. And our immediate family has a long-standing tradition of pie-for-breakfast in the days after Thanksgiving.

We also have a secondary tradition during the rest of the year where we complain all year that all other pie is inferior and pointless.

MUCH too busy yesterday to post! We had our traditional pre-Thanksgiving gumbo party, since we'll do The Big Meal today. Still, I cooked all day, and entertained 10 people. It worked! Our small house (1295 square feet inside) was designed for two empty-nest/retirees, but we wanted to be able to handle a crowd on rare occasions. There was plenty of room for everyone to visit, watch football, and kibbutz with the cooks. We had four people working in the kitchen at one time, and it didn't feel too ridiculously crowded. Today will be more of the same. I'll try to get a picture of the table to contrast with two years ago.

I'm so thankful that our 'different' little house works exactly as planned. There has been a certain background stress while building my own design, wondering if it all would work the way we wanted it to.

Today, I'm thankful for our great nation, and for our military, police, firefighters, and others that lay their life on the line every day so that we can have such a blessed existence.

I'm SO jealous of everyone's dinner! And the pies!

Okay, Texas, here are some before and afters of the furnace room. The before obviously has the mess in it. It will be purged and contained nicely when I'm finally done with it. In the last photo you can see the shopvac, in an open area under the stairs and so I need to clear that area out as well as the laundry room, which is on the other side of the stairs, so I can carry the floor through. You can see the doors for the storage area underneath the stairs don't close properly, so I'll have to sort that out as well. We'll continue to store the bikes in there in the winter and now we'll have room for other seasonal items and such. The hockey trees will go back in there too.

Today I am thankful for living in the country and time that I do.

With the election coming up next year, I've been talking with my daughters about the political process and the history of our country.

The fact that women couldn't even vote 100 years ago and now there is a woman running for president is an amazing example of just how far our society has progressed, something I'm extremely thankful for, especially given that I have 4 daughters.

They can grow up and do or be anything they want, with virtually no limitations.

I look forward to seeing how our society will continue to progress.

I am enormously grateful for my family, our good health, and to live in the time we do. I have enjoyed reading this thread and seeing everyone's pictures.

LWO - so sorry about your little fellow. Hope you're holding up ok.

a2 - How is the oven? I loved seeing pictures of Gatsby - have been looking forward to meeting him! What a gorgeous pup, how on earth did you find/pick him?

A wonderful thanksgiving with part of the family. We are spread coast to coast so this was the Midwest group.

Texas- thank you for hosting this blog

LWO - I am sending you positive energy to help you through your difficult time.

MGMum- one day we will get to meet each other

Freeman - glad to see you are still hanging out here

OldBat - The Advantium upper element is French fried, so has to be replaced. Guess I should have gotten insurance on this one It should be fixed next Thursday

a longer explanation on the pet forum but basically we were looking for a long time. We looked at rescue before going with a pure bred. The breeds we looked at were too big, too small, too hairy, not enough hair, too much shedding, too drooly, too much energy, etc. When I met a Berger Picard, it was just right! The breed found us and we were smitten.

The other dog with my niece is a Cairn terrier She has been tiring out Gatsby.

Check out Gatsby Picard on FB There is a cute video of the two of them playing together

How is your new puppy? Hopefully our puppies will meet

I'm impressed that Gatsby has his own FB page:) I looked, but couldn't find the video. I hope they get to meet, too. Thanks for the background on your search.

i just approved your friend request for Gatsby and myself.

Well, the GC told me he could get me in my house by Thanksgiving this year (he started last April), but I didn't quite expect this to happen, and it didn't. I figure I should be in by March...

I'd also hoped to order a heirloom turkey (small) through Whole Foods -- more flavor and better dark to white meat ratio, and it would only be a once a year at the very most splurge. Then I broke the leg, and decided manhandling a turkey in and out of the oven was going to be a bad idea, even if it were small.

BUT I am thankful that my house IS coming along, and that me and GC still get along, and that I'll be retiring sometime the first half of 2016, and that I now have my first ever great-nephew - who, unfortunately lives in Florida so I haven't seen him in person yet -- I probably won't meet him until early-mid-spring now. But I am grateful he's around and he looks a lot like my brother!

I'm thankful for the wonderful people who've been helping me and dropping off Asian (and other) dishes, and taking me to the doctors when I need to go, and dealing with kitty litter...

I was able to make myself an excellent braised turkey thigh recipe, and I stuffed some delicate squash with a sweet potato / cranberry / apple mixture -- and I didn't have to decline any desserts because I didn't make any!

I hope everybody has had, and is still having, a great Thanksgiving weekend!

A2, I examined your photo closely (admit I was busy admiring Gatsby) and decided I had not seen you among the thousands of travelers I've processed. LOL

I'm glad everyone had a great Thanksgiving and no one got crushed with the shopping, and I'm thankful my weekend at work was not ridiculously busy. :)

A2, we have to meet up sometime! I'd love to see your kitchen in person and meet your adorable Gatsby! I come to AA frequently, for 4th Avenue Birkenstock, Hands On Museum, and my dog groomer. Plus, we love Zingerman's if we have time :) And if you're ever my way (downriver), I'd love to give you the tour and you could meet my Desi and Fred!