Thankful

Yesterday, like most families in the US, we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family.  It was a small crowd this year, just my husband and I with my parents and my grandmother.  But my mom makes the BEST turkey dinner ever.  It has all the fixings and despite the small crowd, it was better than ever.  In fact it may have been a perfect day.

Reese and I started out with a 4 mile run (I run a half marathon in a week and a half that I am NOT prepared for), and came back in time to shower and help with dinner/lunch.  Kansas played basketball at 2:30, so of course we had to schedule our meal around the game.  Those of you who know my family will not be AT ALL surprised by this.

My mom and I have vastly different decorating styles, but her house is always decorated exquisitely and this Thanksgiving was no different.  She had sort of an African theme going on, with a cloth and baskets from her trips to Africa on the table.  It was a beautiful fall palette for our Thanksgiving meal.

Can you tell we are from Kansas? Check out her gold wheat plates and matching glasses. Gorgeous.

Mom’s stuffing is delicious, made with croutons and broth from the Turkey, she adds onions and spices, and it is too die for.

PS If you have a small oven which makes it hard to prepare all the Thanksgiving goods on time, you might think about investing in a roasting pan like this one.  It cooks a turkey beautifully, and can be plugged in wherever you need it to be.  One of the best parts of our Thanksgiving meal? Mom makes several loaves of home-made Swedish rye bread.  Its been a family recipe, that we’ve had as long as I can remember.

Its sweet and light and unbelievably delicious.  And it looks wonderful laid out on your Thanksgiving table.

And you can’t forget pumpkin pie… my parents make it from scratch (including the whipped cream).  One year when we were in college my brothers (there are only 2 of them) ate 13 pumpkin pies over Thanksgiving break.

It was a delicious dinner: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, butternut squash, asparagus, rye bread and pumpkin pie. Oh and dad’s home-made gravy. YUMMMMM.

Oh and KU won… so it was a REALLY good day. What did you guys have for Thanksgiving? Were you able to relax and enjoy your family?