Five on Friday | Planning for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is almost here! Plans are under way . . . 

{one}

This year we will have 25 around our Thanksgiving table! 

I am so excited that our whole family will be here to celebrate together! We will put several tables together end to end so that we can all sit at one looong table. 

This table was from Thanksgiving 2022

{two}

Earlier this week I picked up two new plates that were on clearance at HomeGoods. I keep adding to my collection of brown transferware. I am not sad about it. When I use brown transferware on my Thanksgiving table, I use a variety of patterns and they all seem to work together. 

{three}

I have a very small collection of fall/Thanksgiving mugs, but I love the ones I have. Becki of Field Lilies blog said that she would like to see the turkey one a little closer, so I zoomed in. 

{four}

It is our tradition to use place cards for Thanksgiving dinner. One year I was running short on time and considered forgoing them, but then I was told that the grands have games that they play with their place cards each year. Well, a Gran cannot certainly not ruin such a happy tradition, so I found time to make them! 

This year, I am going to resurrect a version of these printables found in an issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine. You used to be able to download them from her website, but that link has since been removed. Fortunately, I have the original page from the magazine that I can photocopy. 

Thanksgiving 2011

{five}

We will have our Thankful Tree this year!

A Thankful Tree is a simple tree (I am not an artist, so it is truly simple) made of brown craft paper. I cut out a gazillion leaves from cardstock, and everyone writes something that they are thankful for on a leaf/leaves. When we were raising our children, we had a Thankful Tree every year, from the beginning of November until sometime after Thanksgiving. 

Now, we are in a different stage of life and we don't always have one. But this is Kati's year to come for Thanksgiving and all of the children/grandchildren will be here and I want all of the grands to remember this special tradition, so we will hang the Thankful Tree up before they all arrive. 

When I went to Hobby Lobby to purchase card stock in autumn colors, alas, there was none. I came home and found something even better on Amazon: a package of 120 fall leaf card stock cutouts! No tracing or cutting . . . I simply need to punch them out. And they were delivered to my door the next day. Win! 

Punched out three sheets of leaves while I sipped my morning coffee.

Thankful Tree ~ 2023

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD,
and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:
To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning,
and thy faithfulness every night.

Psalm 92:1, 2

Five on Friday | Welcome, November!

When I lose my blogging mojo, I find that a Five on Friday is a good way to just hop back into Blogland without a lot of explanations or fanfare. So here we go . . .

{one}

I happily welcomed November! It is one of my favorite months. It's cozy and comforting and filled with thanksgiving. 

{two}

When November arrives, I start playing my Thanksgiving playlist on Spotify. Around the house. In the car. While I am cooking. While we are eating Thanksgiving dinner, of course. I try to include a little something for everybody. For the little ones, there is Alvin and the Chipmunks' rendition of "Over the River and Through the Woods" and Steve Green's "Give Thanks to the Lord" from one of his Hide 'Em In Your Heart albums. There is a Crowder song for my daughter. Some Michael Card for my son. There are traditional songs like "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" (which I remember learning in elementary school) and newer songs like Matt Boswell's "O Give Thanks." 

If you have a Spotify account, you can click on the image of my playlist below to listen. 

{three}

I also welcome November with fall foods. This week I made some pumpkin butter (recipe ~ here ~) which is so yummy on hot biscuits or toast. It's easy to make and it fills the house with the spicy aroma of fall. 

{four}

For this week's Bible study, I went November-y with cranberry streusel muffins. The streusel topping is the same one that I use in ~ this ~ recipe, but the muffin itself is a bit different. Maybe you'd like to try them? 

CRANBERRY-OAT MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup fresh (or frozen) cranberries
1/4 cup butter

1 cup milk
1 egg


DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Butter muffin cups.

In a bowl, combine dry ingredients and blend well.

Toss the cranberries with 1 tablespoon of dry ingredients and set aside.

Melt butter. Off heat, stir in milk and egg.

Stir butter mixture into dry ingredients and, when well-mixed, stir in cranberries.

Fill muffin cups. (At this point I added ~ this ~ streusel.)
Bake 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned and toothpick inserted into muffin comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before removing from pan. 

{five}

This past year, our ladies' Sunday School class has chosen a Bible verse each month to memorize. I have created iPhone wallpaper for some of those verses to aid in our memorization. It is helpful to have that little reminder each time you pick up your phone! Here is November's wallpaper:

Happy November, my friends!