Getting ready for Thanksgiving

Homeschool day 49 of 180
Government school day 39 of 170

Thank goodness, Halloween is over and we are moving on toward Thanksgiving. It is well known that the senior male member of our household (yours truly) is not a big fan of Halloween. That certainly cannot be said for Thanksgiving. Of Thanksgiving, I am a very, very big fan. There is no downside to Thanksgiving. It is the gift that just keeps on giving. It starts with a lot of food, ends with leftovers, and there is a lot of sleeping, food, and creative memory recounting in-between. I can hardly wait. We are having all of my immediate family over. Cousin Julia is bringing a friend from Dartmouth. Our friend Warren is brining a friend from Miami. The kids enjoy this very much. They used to call him Mr. Bone, but ever since they read Louis Sachar’s book Dogs Don’t Tell Jokes, they call him Miss Turbone. Those of you who have read the book will understand. Those who have not can read the book or just google it. Cousins Tim and David Mecum and David’s wife Valerie will be there. Uncle Doug, Aunt Julia, Aunt Jean, and all their families should be there, too. Of course Grandpa Milo and Grandpa Sarah will be there. Grandpa Milo is visiting our missionaries in Ecuador right now, so he should have lots of amazing new stories to tell at the dinner table. Some of them might even be true.

Our big challenge, as always, will be to decide what we are going to cook. Why this should be a big challenge, I can never understand. We will have roast turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, olives, portobello mushrooms (in deference to Aunt Jean, the vegetarian), cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, etc., etc. The only real decision we have to make is whether we cook a ham along with the turkey. It does not seem too difficult to me. Christian is going to cook some of his new candies. We probably should do those up a couple of days ahead. We will see how he does with big batches. He has only done small batches before so this should be fun and interesting. The cooking part will be fun. How much encouragement he needs to clean up will be the part that is interesting. 🙂

P.S. I just ordered a Ring of Fire Hot Sauce Collection specifically to go with Thanksgiving appetizers!