Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow!  I'm very excited because I *love* thanksgiving dinner, but I'm even more excited because my Mom and Dad are visiting!  I grew up having very traditional thanksgiving meals, and that's how I continue to make holiday meals as an adult.  It's not very exciting or sophisticated of me, but I associate tastes and smells with tradition, and I like remembering holidays from my youth.  They were always very yummy, and sometimes even quite entertaining, depending on the involvement of extended families.  :)

We are having just the four of us tomorrow, so the menu is very simple:

• turkey (free range, antibiotic free, of course!!)
• mom's homemade stuffing
• mashed potatoes (original and cheesy baked)
• green bean casserole
• corn
• turnip
• carrots
• cranberry jelly
• grammy's apple pie
• cheesecake
• pumpkin pie (maybe)

I think that's about it - of course, rolls, bread, gravy, salad, etc...  I feel like I'm forgetting something. 

My Mom has been quite concerned about me pulling this meal off.  It's very funny because I think that thanksgiving dinner is one of the easiest meals to make.  It can be a lot to coordinate, but overall, it's really not that bad.  I've probably hosted at least 10 thanksgiving dinners in my adult life.  A mother worries, though, right?  :)

She asked me the other day if I needed her to email me all the components that go into a Thanksgiving dinner.  LOL - I think I got it.  :)  Today, she asked me if I had sent Darcy to the store yet to get the food for tomorrow's meal.  I teasingly told her that we were waiting until tomorrow morning because the store will be open.  She uttered her best protest, while I kept up the ruse, but I finally broke down and told her that the shopping was already done, and boy was she relieved!

My Mother is very funny.  She is making her delicious apple pie for our meal tomorrow, and they don't fly in until this afternoon.  She decided to make the crust at home and bring it with her on the plane to save time.  I just got a call from my parents saying that they pulled my mother over in airport security due to the foreign substance (uncooked pie crust) that they found in her carry on.  They were going to throw it out, but she begged them not to, so they brought over some sort of tester to make sure it wasn't an explosive substance, and the crust was cleared.

"Well you know," my Mom said to me on the phone, "90% of people don't even make their own pie crust these days so no wonder they didn't even know what it was!"  LOL - hilarious.

This is going to be a very fun holiday, and I'm hoping that portion control will save us all.

:)