We celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving! As we start to prepare for Christmas, I wanted to take a moment an share our holiday with you in pictures.
We started on Wednesday with our annual Lefse Making Party. Our grand-girlies always want to help when we are in the kitchen.
Nora even learned to flip the lefse on the griddle this year.
When you are a little, making lefse can get boring but they decided the scraps made great play-dough.
Next, it was time to make Apple-Cranberry Pie filling.
Everyone likes to help and get messy.
Nora stamped the top crust with our apple pie cutter so everyone would know what kind of pie it was.
Ready for the oven.
In the quiet moments of the evening, I assembled the centerpiece for the table.
On Thursday morning, the grand-kiddos and their parents were back to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Ronan tried the satsumas and couldn’t get enough.
Something bright in the parade caught his attention (and distracted him from trying to stand in the rocker).
The grand-girlies snuggled with Grandpa to watch the parade and enjoy their breakfast of Maple Bacon Monkey Bread and Eggnog.
Soon it was time to start the stuffing for the turkey so the girls started chopping the apples with their “kid” knives while Grandpa browned the sausage and Grandma cut onions and celery. (The stuffing bread was baked a few days ago, cubed and set to dry.) Nora declared that they were our “Helper Chefs.”
Nora helped to harvest the herbs from the patio in the rain.
She helped prep the bed for turkey by laying sage leaves, garlic cloves, and onion rings in the bottom of the roasting bag.
She loves using the rolling herb cutter and made quick work of chopping the sage, rosemary, and thyme.
Ilona decided she would have a snack and just watch her sissy do the cooking.
She mixed her chopped herbs into the butter that we would rub on the turkey after it was stuffed.
She helped Grandpa stuff the turkey. She said it was like feeding the turkey without using his mouth.
Her favorite part is rubbing the herb butter all over the turkey before it goes in the oven.
Then it was time to make the butter. The kids have been doing this for the Thanksgiving table since our boys were small. This year, I bought a little churn to make it easier.
When the girls’ arms got tired, their daddy helped them finish churning.
The girls put the churned butter into heart-shaped molds and we popped into the freezer for a little while to firm up.
The heart-shaped butter pats were so cute on the table.
My favorite part of our Thanksgiving is our Thankfulness Journal Tablecloth. Each year each every individual that is with us for dinner writes a note of thankfulness and signs their name and year with Sharpie markers. We all enjoy reading the messages from the previous years.
If you are too small to write your own name, we trace your handprint and write your name (and message if you have one) with the year. It’s fun to see how the kids’ handprints grow each year.
Our napkin rings/place cards were an idea adapted from Pinterest using cardstock, gold ribbon, and stems of herbs that we harvested earlier in the rain.
While we waited for dinner to cook, their daddy helped the girls put together a gingerbread turkey.
They loved their turkey and really, really wanted to taste it and the candies on it.
We gathered around the table to feast on the wonderful food we had made.
We enjoyed all that were able to gather and greatly missed those that weren’t with us this year.
After dinner, it was time for new Christmas jammies! Our son and daughter-in-love give their children Christmas jammies on Thanksgiving so they can enjoy them the whole month leading up to Christmas.
After getting into their new jammies, they snuggled with their mommy for a picture. We concluded the evening with watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (animated version) with the children.
After they were in bed, we continued our tradition of watching “oldie but goodie” Christmas movies. Ronan decided he wanted to join the grown-up party and watch “Miracle on 34th Street.”
I hope you had a wonderful weekend with your family! Our prayers are with our friends who struggled through the first holiday after losing a loved one.
Sharing my heart for home and family,
