Thanksgiving

I am a traditionalist when it comes to holidays. I love holidays and I surely love traditions that surround those holidays.

My remembrances of Thanksgiving growing up of course center around food. I remember waking to the sound of my Daddy putting the gazillion-pound turkey into the oven at 4 in the morning. I'm not sure why it took so long to cook, but it did and it was always done around 2 p.m.

My family loved stuffing and so my Daddy made a HUGE batch of stuffing. Part of it made it into the bird (yes, this grosses out microbiologist Chris which means we don't do this in our own house, sniff, sniff-that's me crying) and part of it was left out for us to eat for breakfast.

You may think that's disgusting, but let me tell you that stuffing for breakfast is quite delicious...maybe it's just a Nielson thing, my sisters will definately agree with me!

When I woke up this Thanksgiving morning, my good husband had something waiting for me...

A big bowl of stuffing!!

O.K., that's not what it looked like in the morning, but there it is on our Thanksgiving table in the bowl that growing up we dubbed the stuffing bowl--I can't think of any other time that bowl was used,only for stuffing at Thanksgiving and Christmas!! I was lucky enough to inherit it! (Maybe not luck, I had to barter to get that bowl from my sisters:)

I love setting a formal table at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Out comes the china, and the silver I inherited from my parents and grandparents, the crystal Chris brought from his mission in the Czech Republic and I reminice about all the holidays past. Chris reminded me that he got in "trouble" at the Nielson household when he tried wearing a hat to dinner the first time we joined my family for Thanksgiving. Haha! That tells you something about Chris' dislike for formality and maybe something about me, too, perhaps it's my liking for things done a certain way, at least it tells you you'd better not wear a hat to a Nielson dinner!

Kierst made napkin ring holders to add a festive touch:


Here's the crew around the table: (yes, that's jellied cranberry sauce out of the can behind Kierst, another Nielson tradition--and perhaps to those with a less refined palate another acquired taste)

Can't take pics without Abs and Lisi being silly for the camera:

Lisi looks so much like my Daddy in this picture it's scary.

Lovin' that gigantic turkey leg!

Chris had to work on Thanksgiving, but was home early enough to put together a marvelous feast!

In the evening we had a few friends over for pie. Kierst made pilgrim hats for the kids who didn't want pie.

With what everyone brought we ended up with the traditional pumpkin (my favorite!), along with Stapley traditional pie like blueberry cream cheese and pumpkin chiffon, and a couple of apple, and a candy pie, and a couple of chocolate silk pies. Delicious! Not to mention a great time with friends. This may have to become a tradition at our house.

Friday I was up at 3 a.m. ready to hit Target. I am one of those weird ones who actually enjoys Black Friday, but you won't find me at ToysRUs or Best Buy! Why in the world is it always freezing cold?? Standing outside my teeth couldn't stop chattering! Is it worth it? I don't know, sometimes?, but it's become a tradition for me, it's always fun standing in line commiserating with all the other crazies!

The rest of the weekend for us is decorating for Christmas (yes, I love to go all out, if only I could convince Chris to risk life and limb in order to string lights on the second story of our house, haha!), interspersed with a few other activities like a trip this afternoon to see Megamind.

Now on to Christmas!