Thanks for so much

Oh so many times I've thought I need to put this on my blog.  But being me I get distracted or figure, later, and of course later never comes.  Until now, later is now and so this might result in a rather large post.  If you enjoy my rambling then this is music to your eyes (ears?) and if you don't, what the heck are you doing here anyway?  Yeah!

On Tuesday, at school, my group of 4th graders had to do a Ladder Poem with the word Thanksgiving.  I always feel so inspired by the imposed rules of a Ladder Poem.  Start with a single word and every line add a new word, so by the end of Thanksgiving there needed to be a line that started with a G word that was 12 words long.  I decided to give it a whirl and am pretty happy with the outcome, for ya know 15 minutes of writing.  Before ya scream that my job isn't to write, it's to help them write, let me tell you, for the first time in nearly all the days I've been working with them, they all worked hard and got it (nearly) all done.  Why the nearly?  Well because I announced that I was going to turn my poem in with theirs so their teacher could see, maybe I'd get a gold star even!  Trouble was, they had used some of my lines, so they had to rewrite, using their own words!  In the end I didn't turn mine in, but theirs were better for my having worked along side them.  Without further ado, my Thanksgiving Ladder Poem...

T hanksgiving
H ome today
A lone?  Not today
N ow we bond together
K eeping family traditions alive, happily
S lices of turkey, ham and pie!
G iving thanks, sharing stories, eating tons today
I  love the sights and smells of Thanksgiving
V iscous gravy flows over potatoes, mixing with fruit salad
I nches gained?  No calories count this day, eat, Eat, EAT!
N ow we are all full, of food, of laughter, of love
G uests get sleepy, soon they will leave, taking left overs, leaving dishes.


So, yesterday was Thanksgiving, and it was a pretty darn good day all things considered.  Normally family makes me tense and I go into recluse mode, it's a challenge with a child but usually he's happy to be social while I be awkward.  Yesterday was different.  I did pretty much everything for the dinner, and we don't do small here.  This is evidenced from the pictures I took, don't judge, we are a little piggish for Thanksgiving!

Yeah it's kinda hard to get the full effect of it all, I should have explained that the table was covered with pre dinner munchies too, but ya know, those had to be cleared to make room for the feast.  So let me just put out there the run down, oh and because I love this whole sharing my life with the world thing, if I found the recipe online, I'll link to it.  Also because most of those things were really really good!

Thanksgiving 2012 Menu

Meat/cheese platter

Fruit platter

Cheddar Ranch Cheese Spread (OMG so GOOD!)

Pizza Dippers 

(I'm not going to post the site I found the idea on because I changed it so much it hardly matters.  What does need to be known is that I used store bought pizza crust, a jar of alfredo sauce, and oodles of cheese, baked it up and tada! everyone's new favorite snack food.  It was the only thing Bug ate, so go MOM!)

Turkey 

(the one thing I didn't prepare, but only because my Mom didn't know I was willing to roast the bird)

Ham

Yams

Fruit Salad

Ambrosia Salad

Waldorf Salad minus the nuts

Mashed Potatoes

Corn 

Green Beans

Rolls

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

(that is the red stuff in the pan large as life upper right of the photo)

Roasted Chestnut Stuffing

(I don't know if we aren't stuffing people or what but I'm the only one who tried this.  Very sad face)

Pineapple Casserole

(I think I made this wrong, it took way longer to cook then it should have and it was not enjoyable to eat.  I think I will try again at Christmas, smaller pan this time though)

Cheesy Smashed Cauliflower

(this is where I admit I'm not a Cauliflower fan, this was a requested item, so I might make it again at Christmas, but I will follow the directions and see if that will improve it.  I made it in the microwave and well, yeah, enough said.  Though my cousin, who requested it, said it was Fantastic!)

Pumpkin Pie

Cherry Pie

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Dip served with 'nilla wafters and cinnamon graham crackers

(My little, I guess he's my nephew, sorta, loved this stuff.  He's not very vocal but he would come stand beside me and I would say "another cracker?" and he would nod, then I'd ask "dip?" and he'd grin and nod, so I'd dip his cracker and hand it over.  Pure joy on a little boy face, it was AWESOME! oh and everyone who tried the dip loved it, except Bug, shocking, I know)

So that lays out the feast pretty well, like I said, we tend to get overly joyful with food.  And it was a great day of cooking and feeding the family, all except Bug, who was not feeling well.  Allergies making his throat hurt.  Sore throats make me so nervous now days.  I remember how fast I got sick and how quickly it all fell apart for me and I'm thinking, holy crap does he even have the right vocabulary to tell me if he feels like I did?  Oh and I had to make a run out to the store, the pumpkin pie I bought on the weekend decided it wanted to grow mold (major frowny face) and I needed to stop by the school to get a few extra chairs so we could accommodate all the extra butts at our house.  There were tons of left overs, but my cousin and her family took a whole bag of goodies home.

To be honest I'm very proud of myself.  This is the first Thanksgiving meal I've prepared by myself, and not only did I make it all (except that pesky turkey) but I cleaned the house before they came, and kept up on the dishes throughout the day so that there wasn't a HUGE mess to clean up after.  It still took a couple hours to get it all straightened up but I did it.  ME!  And it filled me with joy and happiness to be so homey.  Like getting back in touch with who I wanted to be and who I never became.  Sometimes life is funny.