Thanksgiving Day 2008

This Thanksgiving Day we ate at our house and our friends, the Boschees, came to share dinner with us. This is an old tradition for us that started 10 years ago, we’ve skipped a few years but have spent more Thanksgivings together then apart. We were really excited to have them up and to also share our first Thanksgiving with the kids. We decided to eat nice and late, at 5pm, so that there would be plenty of time for relaxing cooking and for the Boschees to drive up. In terms of cooking it turned out to be the most relaxing Thanksgiving I have had.

I searched high and low for low sodium recipes prior to Thanksgiving so that I could enjoy all the food I wanted. I found a really good turkey recipe that was made with rosemary, basil and garlic... And no liquids. I cooked it in an oven bag so that it would still come out moist... It is definitely one of the best turkeys I have ever had. Our leftovers are almost gone! I also did make ahead mashed potatoes, pies, and cranberry salad the night before... So on the day of Thanksgiving, there was very little to do.

I may not have had Thanksgiving with kids in the past, but I have learned enough in the past eight months to know that kids + waiting for food = catastrophe. So I set out some crafts for them to do when they first came. I set out stickers (thank you Mom,) tracers for turkeys and leaves, thankful notes, scissors, crayons, glue sticks – everything I could think of. They made their own placemats and I had a table runner for them to make too... But they never got to it. It was successful at occupying their time. Madison’s placemat turned out the best!
I was really happy with how the turkey turned out and Andy did a great job at carving. The meal was really good, although we had a surprising amount of leftovers. While Angie and I cleaned up and packed away bags for each of us, the kids started playing. Charlie managed to cut his nose while he and Natalie were bouncing... Of course. That kid has to always have some type of bruise or cut on his face! So we put a bandaid on it, and Natalie wanted one to match. Lynnae and Madison played in her room, Andy and Jeff did their video-game thing, and Angie and I sat downstairs talking while we watched Natalie and Charlie play. They were really cute. We ate dessert and the Boschees headed back home to make sure they had plenty of sleep before Black Friday.


After they left we gathered the kids to talk one more time about the purpose of Thanksgiving and how important it is to be grateful. Prior to this year, Lynnae had no concept of why we even celebrate the holiday. She definitely does now! She read a book to the family, “Thanks for Thanksgiving,” and we headed to bed. All in all, this Thanksgiving is one to remember!