Thanksgiving 2016

♩ ♫  Come, ye thankful people, come  ♫ ♪

♩ ♫  Raise the song of harvest home  ♫ ♪

♩ ♫  All is safely gathered in  ♫ ♪

♩ ♫  Ere the winter storms begin  ♫ ♪

♩ ♫  God our Maker doth provide  ♫ ♪

♩ ♫  For our wants to be supplied  ♫ ♪

♩ ♫  Come to God's own temple, come  ♫ ♪

♩ ♫  Raise the song of harvest home.  ♫ ♪

 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, 

and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, 

and Your faithfulness every night.

Psalm 92: 1, 2

Monday Morning Meanderings {In Which I Talk Thanksgiving and Kitchen Updates and Sunday Snapshots)

So here we are, on Monday of Thanksgiving week (!!), and I am wondering how in the world it could be that time again. Is it me, or is November really the shortest month of the year? Once Kati's birthday arrives (November 2nd)...BOOM...it's Christmas! How does that happen? 

This will be our first Thanksgiving celebrated at Pineapple House and I'm so excited! You may recall that at The Farmhouse, we rearranged entire rooms for Thanksgiving. The dining room table came into the big farmhouse kitchen and the love seat and school desk went into the small dining room. Last year, we brought in a folding table too, and we actually had three big tables in our kitchen to accommodate our group of 24. We loved having everyone in one room and it was worth all of the trouble. 

Last year's three tables

But Pineapple House has the dining room/living room that flow together (one of the things that drew us to this house!) and we are planning on having one looooong table.

Last night, we had a planning session/dress rehearsal. What tables? Tablecloths? Do we have enough cloth napkins? Do we have enough chairs? Who will sit where? Which dishes? How to decorate the tables?

Experimentation!

We are thinking about the Grandmother Dishes with creamy white and green accessories, and we haven't "ironed" out all of the details yet (and, yes, some true ironing is needed!), but the real adornments will be the beautiful and thankful faces around the table!

A few weeks ago, I told you about our plans for the kitchen.  Well, we have been working on it a little bit at a time. Ron has not had days off, but we have been taking available evenings and parts of Saturdays to remove the wallpaper, prep the walls, and paint. Over the weekend, we finished painting the entry/island area of the kitchen, as well as the wall that flows into the hallway. (Painting the cabinets will come later, perhaps this winter.) This completes all of the painting that we will do until after the holidays.

The color is a grey-green-tan. There is a long story behind it (isn't there always a paint color story?!), and it is not exactly what I thought I chose. But, in the end, I decided to embrace it, and now I love it!

I am hoping that Ron will get the new shutters made soon! (With the old ones down, I feel like I am living in a fish bowl!) And we are still hunting for the right chandelier to replace the stained glass one. But I am very pleased with our progress. Having that one section of the kitchen "quieted" makes the whole room feel fresher.

Here are a few pictures of the newly painted space, but I have to say that it looks much better in person. The amount of light that is streaming in through those windows makes it difficult to read the true colors. (I'll try again once Ron gets those shutters made; they should diffuse some of that light.)

And now, a few of my favorite shots from yesterday's family gathering...

Please excuse the tilted view, but I was scrambling to capture the moment as Paul was waving to Papa who was sitting at the opposite end of the table. "Hi, Papa!" 

Cranberry upside-down cake with a dollop of fresh whipped cream.

Macie was fascinated with the sea turtle that Aunt Kati was putting on her head. :)

Kati and Alaine modeling their "camera" t-shirts while Owen is being a ten-year-old boy! ~grin~

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! 

Let's Talk Turkey

Our house is full of autumn touches almost as soon as the calendar turns to September. Pumpkin and gourds. Mums and spicy candles. Bowls of apples and Friendly Village. But I wait until November to get out the turkeys! 

Here are a few turkeys that are hanging around Pineapple House these days.

This is my primitive Tom. I made him several years ago (using these instructions) and he has made a Thanksgiving appearance ever since, sometimes on the Thanksgiving table, sometimes elsewhere, but always a presence. 

New to me this year is this turkey candy mold I bought when we went antiquing on Labor Day.

He has joined Primitive Tom on the sideboard for November.

I love the turkey on my November calendar!

Are you cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving? Of course, we always cook a turkey because we host Thanksgiving dinner, but I think I'd cook one anyway. I love the leftovers! I don't get tired of turkey. In fact, I run out of turkey before I run out of leftover turkey ideas! Hot turkey sandwiches, turkey pot pie, turkey soup, turkey tetrazzini... My daughter Kristin always cooks a turkey for their family, and my mom cooks a turkey breast. What do you do? Do you get tired of turkey? 

Now sure what size turkey to buy or how many desserts to serve? This fun graphic takes the guess work out of Thanksgiving planning!  (Click the photo for more details.) 

Click ~here~ for another really cool online resource for choosing (and cooking) the Thanksgiving bird. Butterball offers "calculators" to make it simple. What a great idea! Plug in the number of adults and the number of children, check the box if you want leftovers, indicate whether your group has big eaters or light eaters, and --VOILA!-- Butterball will tell you how much turkey and how much stuffing you'll need! There are other "calculators" for how long to thaw and how long to cook, as well as conversion tables for measurements and temperature. 

Let's talk turkey!