I was sitting by the fireplace wrapped in my afghan
sipping tea. Chills were running up and down my spine and my head felt as if
someone had loaded bricks on it. It was Monday, about ten years ago. Thanksgiving
lurked around the corner. I knew I had to make a decision. My heart wanted to prepare a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner in my new yellow two-story home but my body
wasn’t cooperating.
I called my oldest daughter, Julie and heard myself
saying that I just couldn’t do it. The flu had captured me in it’s
fiery claws and would not let go. Julie immediately responded by saying that
she would be glad to have Thanksgiving but did I have recipes? Julie had never
attempted this. (This was years ago, now she is a seasoned holiday entertainer
for sure.)
I assured Julie that I would write down everything
I could think of about Thanksgiving to assure that she wouldn’t be bogged down with unexpected surprises and run out
of time.
I sipped my tea and began to write. This is what I said:
(1) Make
out a menu. Assign each family member one or more items to bring. Keep a list of what each person is bringing. When I host
Thanksgiving, I usually let someone else prepare time-consuming things, such as desert.
My son-in-law and daughter, Anissa and Chuck will usually bring homemade cheesecake of different
flavors…..it is so yummy!
(2) Do your
grocery shopping on Tuesday with a complete list of all items.
(3) Start
thawing the turkey out on Tuesday. We thaw ours out in a large Styrofoam cooler.
(4) Also
on Tuesday: Cut up onions and celery. Place in zip-lock containers
and refrigerate. Cook cranberry sauce and refrigerate (I use recipe on package of cranberries; the aroma as you are cooking
the cranberries is wonderful!)
(5) Wednesday
– If you are having gravy that contains boiled eggs, go ahead and boil your eggs, cut up finely, cover and refrigerate.
If you are making cornbread-biscuit dressing, bake cornbread and biscuit s today. (I
will give you my recipe) I keep the cornbread and
biscuits in the oven after baking.
(6) Wednesday,
also: I make angel biscuits and keep in refrigerator. (I will also give you this recipe.) Get out table linens and wash if
they need it. Make sure you have enough of everything. If you are having over night guests, change and wash sheets; put last
minute touches on guest room
(7) Thursday: First thing in the morning, set the table.
(8) As guests
arrive, if they want to help, let them!
(9) Promise
yourself to relax with your guests and go with the flo. Pat yourself on the back. You did it!
My Menu is usually:
Turkey, Dressing, Cranberry Sauce, Creamy Squash
Casserole, Betty Bragg's Cranberry-Apple Casserole, fresh green beans and Angel Biscuits. All of these recipes can be found at Frannie’s Fantastic Free Recipes (on navigation list) or http://www.goodcharacterpress.com/id12.html
Have fun with your children. It is the perfect time to read them the story of Pollyanna. One
good character trait is being grateful for all we have. To refresh yourself on this heart-wrenching story click http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/pollyanna/synopsis.html. It would even be fun to buy (or rent) the cd version
with Haley Mills and Jane Wyman – 1960 http://www.amazon.ca/Pollyanna-Widescreen-Discs-David-Swift/dp/B00005RRGB.
Another good activity for you and your children
is to go through toys that they have outgrown and put aside some for children in need. Let your child help pick out the toys
and be a big part of this process. He or she will feel so good for doing this. There
are many places that collect toys around the holidays and no doubt the thankfulness theme will be understood as your child
looks at all the toys that he has.
Perhaps we all should play the “glad game”
that Pollyanna promoted and count our blessings. I know I have many, many wonderful
blessings in my life.
Happy Thanksgiving.
May you bless and be blessed!
Oh, and in case you are wondering, Julie had a beautiful,
delicious Thanksgiving Dinner (I was OK by then and well enough to eat!)
Fran – webmaster for http://www.goodcharacterpress.com/
franl@goodcharacterpress.com
