Monthly Musings: Thanksgiving Prep

 It's the last Thursday of the month and time to link up with Holly and Patty for their Monthly Musing series.  I'm sure at least a few of these questions overlap other Q&A type posts I've done through the years but I hope you don't mind.  

1. I do host Thanksgiving and only can remember about 3 or 4 years where I haven't ever since my husband and I bought our first house while still in college.  It's a lot of work but I just love Thanksgiving. 

2. I make ALL the dishes!  Typically I make a turkey,  mashed potatoes, stuffing, butternut squash, a green veggie like green beans or broccoli, rolls/bread, possibly a tossed salad, usually a pumpkin pie, an apple pie, a chocolate chip pecan pie and then I buy ice cream, caramel, whipped cream, cranberry sauce, and gravy.   This year I'm thinking of making up some cookies too.. but we'll see. 

3. I have so many favorite Thanksgiving dishes and I have shared just about all of them on my blog through the years-- mashed potatoes (here), chocolate chip pecan pie (here), my mom's apple pie recipe (here), my favorite bread stuffing (here)... but my husband and mine's all time favorite is actually a dish we make with the leftovers for the day AFTER thanksgiving ingeniously called "leftover pie" (here). 

4. Most of our traditions have fallen by the wayside now that all my boys are getting older but one thing remains the same-- after Thanksgiving dinner when we're all cleaned up and ready to relax the whole family sits down to watch Elf together and that kind of finishes up our fall and starts our Christmas celebration. 

5. I had to google to find out the difference between stuffing and dressing!  And while we have always called it "stuffing" we don't stuff anything in our house so I guess we make bread dressing?! 

I do, however, always quarter an apple, halve a lemon, and quarter an onion and stuff all of that along with a few sprigs of rosemary inside the cavity of the bird. It smells amazing and I feel like those flavors to leak into the meat of the bird a bit.  

6. We have all 3 pies at our table but I only eat the pecan and the apple.  

7. This is one holiday where I do set the table and we eat a bit more formally but it's easy to do when we only invite 3 or 4 others to join us and we can all fit around the dining room table easily.  I like to set my table a day or two in advance so it's one less thing to do on the actual day. 

I can tell this table photo is an old one since the boys have plastic cups! 

We still use these same Pier One imports place settings/ napkin rings and our old cloth napkins I bought in college (though I am on the hunt for a replacement pair for this year!)

8. Gosh, I don't even think of beverages! LOL.  Usually me and my boys all drink water and I make sure I have coffee on hand for the grandparents (though my mom usually provides that).  We're a pretty boring family drink-wise.

9. I do not shop Black Friday and avoid going anywhere near the stores the entire weekend.  We use Friday to put up our tree and our decorations instead.

10.  We don't watch any sports games of any kind any time of the year but as you've already heard Thanksgiving night does kick off our holiday movie season!.. and I just realized my last "favorite holiday movie" post was back in 2016 and includes so many cartoons and kids shows we no longer watch so I'll have to do an updated list soon!!  

Linking up with: Thinking Out Loud,