Thanksgiving ATMOSPHERE

Do you decorate? Do you play special music?

The older girls and I made a cornucopia a couple years ago. It graces our table every year during the month of November. I enjoy it.

As far as music, if you're at our house on or around Thanksgiving, you can expect to hear this song at some point:



I've been a George Winston fan for a long time, but I didn't know about his December album until I was in college, I think. I love it. The first track is the above song. Unfortunately, that is the only Thanksgiving-specific song I know of. Do you know of any?

Thanksgiving FOOD

Movin' right along...

Anyone seeing the Muppet movie when it comes out? I'm hoping it goes to Redbox relatively quickly so I can see it. :)

Movin' right along from THAT...



The holidays.... specifically Thanksgiving.

I have to get a head count, but we anticipate at least 5-10 more people here with our family for Thanksgiving this year. Dare I hope that we can eat in the yard? I won't be able to plan on it, but it would be a nice surprise. I love eating in the yard; it doubles the amount of space we have for people.

If not, we will plan to be cozy and just have to set up a couple extra tables and move some living room furniture around a little bit. No big deal.

So the food....

My plan at this point is pretty traditional: turkey, stuffing (I make mine outside the turkey), green bean casserole, etc. I hope to have our friends who are coming bring a dish they think of as traditional. My must-have is stuffing, and a couple years ago I started making it in muffin tins so everyone gets some of the crispy parts. YUM. One traditional food that we always have but that Ethan and I could live without is turkey. I know, I know... We're just not huge turkey fans, partly because most turkeys we've ever had have been flavorless and way too dried out. The last couple years when I've made turkey I've done as Martha Stewart suggests and taken it out when it is about 5 degrees cooler than it's supposed to be. The meat keeps cooking for 5-10 minutes after you take it out and will be FINE, but it seems wrong. But then when we ate it, it was perfect. So that's what I do now. One odd thing about our family Thanksgiving is that we always have way too many desserts. One year even though the only guests were my parents and one of my brothers, we somehow ended up with four pies. FOUR PIES for five adults and three children (at the time). I still don't know why. My mom's extended family gatherings always have a lot of desserts too, so I think it's a tradition at this point.

What are you having for Thanksgiving dinner? What is a must-have? What's a traditional food that it seems as if EVERYONE else has, but you pass on? And is there anything you think is odd about your family Thanksgivings but that you love regardless? :)

Thanks in advance for sharing!