it's all about the food

That's not exactly what you expected to hear about Thanksgiving, is it?  But this year, "all about the food" meant all about the kids.

Our Thanksgiving turned out to be just the cozy four of us this year ~ no company, no going through the woods. So we focused on the girls. We asked them to develop the menu for our feast.

The menu consisted of the traditional fare for most houses ~ turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, yams, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce (no can!), Aunt Nell's salad, rolls, and pumpkin pie. Heather drew a picture menu that they used for list planning and strategic planning on Thanksgiving Day.

After the list was created, I helped Stephanie & Heather go through the recipes, both on paper and in my head, and make a shopping list. They were wholly in charge of Thanksgiving shopping. Greg had taken them grocery shopping the week before to practice. He merely supervised while they did all the shopping. Since they are nonworking children, he provided the means of payment at the end too. For our Thanksgiving shopping, Greg supervised the girls while I did our regular weekly shopping in a separate cart, and even in separate aisles at times. They really enjoyed doing the shopping and I'm thinking they will be doing it more often!

The night before Thanksgiving, Heather helped start the Aunt Nell's salad. First thing in the morning I supervised the pie making. We nearly had a mishap of sweetened condensed milk being substituted for evaporated milk. Other than that, all was well.

We cooked the turkey on the grill again this year. In years past, I had always been in such a rush to get the turkey ready for cooking, the kids had never really watched. This time they felt the innards and were amazed by the way the turkey felt in its raw state. We had an fowl anatomy lesson by the sink. I finally had to send Heather away because she started petting the turkey quite lovingly and asking about how they kill them and did the turkey know it was going to die. Attachment was settling in.

We had an easier time of getting the turkey on the spit and securing it this time. Greg rigged a counter-weight system so the motor was not so taxed in bringing the breast up to the top. It was a very windy day, however, and the flame snuffed out two or three times unbeknownst to us, which added more cook time to the bird. No worries. We weren't in a hurry.

The kids cooked the meal as much as possible. They followed recipes or followed directions quite well. The onions proved to be too much and too strong at one point, so I had to finish that up. They were proud of their accomplishments. It was a delicious dinner!

After dinner we went to the movies and saw Tangled. Super cute movie. We recommend it.

And don't forget the pumpkin pie after the movies! Never forget the pumpkin pie!

Even though this year's Thanksgiving was all about the food ~ it was really all about being Thankful. We are thankful

• for each other;
• that we have the means to buy the food;
• that we have a nice warm home free from wind on such windy days;
• that our children are healthy and such smart helpers;
• and so much more ~ too much to mention here. 

Next up ~ Black Friday shopping. Give me strength!