We had a lovely, non traditional Thanksgiving! Since we could not eat any stuffing or pies due to our son's grain-free diet, we did something completely different. When I surveyed the kids and my husband on what was most important for Thanksgiving, the kids said eating lots of food, the dog show on TV, and using our china dishes. My husband, who was sick, said keeping everything calm. With all that in mind, I set out to make a great holiday.
Tom Sawyer loves using the family china. He studied different place setting templates on an Internet wedding site and then set the table. He did it all by himself. He was concerned that we did not have any ice cream dishes or oyster forks (nevermind that we were
not having and never have had oysters). LOL
The final menu was (all homemade except the pizza and rolls) ~
- pot roast
- grain-free pizza
- mashed potatoes
- peas
- orange-glazed cooked carrots from our garden
- baked beans
- grain-free rolls
For dessert, we had homemade banana splits with homemade chocolate sauce! Yummy! We enjoyed playing with the Wii Fit Plus and watching the dog show on TV. We also went on a nice walk around the neighborhood. The kids also cleaned their rooms and sorted out toys they no longer wanted. These are being swiftly taken away by needy families on Freecycle. I love that the kids are pleased about blessing others. In fact, they are the ones that reminded me that they wanted to sort their toys on Thanksgiving.
We also wrote what we were thankful for in our Thankful book. Ever since we got married, we have pulled this book out each Thanksgiving and everyone in attendance who was capable of writing has added to it. I enjoy reading what has been said over the years. Some are sweet ~ like being thankful for siblings written in child scrawl and others are funny, like being thankful for Legos.
Lastly, we
finally got a good picture of the kids. I gave up on having the dogs in the photo. It is good enough. Now, I just have to choose which photo and order it as a Christmas card. Which do you like best?
Blessings,
Dawn
I love your nontraditional menu! What kind of pizza and rolls did you get? Tom Sawyer did an amazing job with the table. I laughed so hard about his oyster forks concerns!
ReplyDeleteI can't decide about the pictures. The first one is sharper but I like Tom Sawyer's little smile in the second one. Both are great pictures, though. We haven't even started trying yet this year!
So glad you had a nice Thanksgiving, and I love the idea of the kids blessing others with their toys!
I like the top picture best. I love that you have a tradition of having the kids sort through their toys on Thanksgiving to give away...what a great reminder for them about how much they have to be thankful for!
ReplyDeleteI love that you used real china and that your son took such care to set the table. Please tell him that he did a great job...it looks very elegant!
Top photo has better color and contrast, I think.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful Thanksgiving. And we have the same china from our wedding!
Beautiful Thanksgiving! What a wonderful job setting out the china. The pattern is so pretty!
ReplyDeleteWe watched the dog show also.
I like the second photo best.
I love love love what your family said was important to them. Thankful hearts and a beautiful meal is such a blessing. You, as always, are such a wonderful, creative, and loving mom/wife. [o=
ReplyDeleteBlessings and ((HUGS))
-Mary
PS: I view you as the master at planning and still staying sane. You are such a inspiration. ((HUGS))