Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is Nathan's favorite holiday of the year because it's the one time he can cook without restraint and abandon all moderation. As a tradition, we seek out and invite any people we can find who may be alone for the holidays or those who would otherwise not enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner. It's great fun and each year we entertain a nice blend of people with a variety of backgrounds. Our guest list this year included:

4 women from Nigeria
A friend from India
2 Mormon missionaries
a family of 5 we know via work and church
a single mother and her daughter
Shameka, Lisa's best friend
We made 100 rolls the day before Thanksgiving. It was great fun. Nathan taught the children how to form the rolls. We all had fun working together to form them.

Nathan roasted 2 large turkeys, and I must add that his recipe for turkey defies all competition. The white meat is juicy (not like the cardboard-hard and dry white meat you usually get) and the dark meat is tender (not th slimy stuff you're used to). His recipe starts 6 hours before the roasting time and everyone ALWAYS loves Nate's turkey. Even the people who usually avoid turkey found themselves getting seconds. It may have something to do with his fantastic cranberry dipping sauce, thanks to Alton Browns recipe.

The pies are a particular favorite. Nathan loves making pies. This years pie list included:

2 pumpkin (the classic)
2 pineapple cream
Black forest pie
Apple pie
Lemon Truffle
2 Paradise Isle (Lion House recipe)
Lemon Meringue
Butterscotch (I've never made butterscotch from scratch before....it's really not like what I expected, but delicious!)

Much to Nathan's disappointment, my favorite dessert was the Rasmalai that our Indian friend brought. It was SO GOOD! I love Indian desserts and I was so tickled with her dessert that I went back for more and skipped the pies. I raved about it to her and she agreed to teach me how to make it. I'm so excited at that prospect!

This year we made nut cups for each guest as place cards. Nathan had the idea and we did a family art night to make them all. We cut out paper to make each cup into a little turkey and the kids helped us put them all together. It took too long to cut out snoods for each turkey, so I was skipping that step. Matthew was so disappointed that his turkey didn't have a snood, so we made a special-order turkey for him. We drew name tags on the turkeys belonging to the Elders. :)

I set the tables an hour before guests came, just so I wouldn't have to worry about it later. Daniel was so excited to eat that he promptly climbed in a chair and asked if we could say prayers yet. I explained that dinner wasn't going to start for a long time and he should go play, but he was so determined to wait it out. He sat there for 30 minutes, asking every 5 minutes if it was time to pray yet! I tried to rock him to sleep for a nap before dinner, but he was too excited to relax and he would fight to get away. When guests did show up, he fell asleep right before dinner. He was sitting up listening to us chat and his eyes just dropped and he fell asleep sitting up. Poor guy! I felt bad that he had waited so long just to miss it all anyway. He woke up at the end of dinner, so he had the table to himself while he ate.

As a family activity for FHE this month, we had the children tell us things they were thankful for and we wrote their statements on laminated leaves to decorate the tables with. Some of their statements were:

Sarah- Maps so I don't get lost. The color pink. My bedroom. Primary teachers.

Matthew- Food so I can stay alive. My parents. My stuffed monkey, Lawrence Abu Kingsley.

Daniel- Jesus. Sugar. Glue. Prayer.