Planning for Thanksgiving

I get a lot of pleasure out of planning. Sometimes I find it more fun to plan an activity than to participate in it. I'm working on this problem with a mindfulness practice.

I try not to put expectations on my plans. That was a necessary mental adaption that I resolved in the 1990s. Plan, make lots and lots of plans, but expect nothing. Things fall apart and it's better to have lots of options in place than to get heartbroken when something/anything goes awry. That was a hard lesson to learn. But once I accepted the reality I've enjoyed everything much more, including planning. If someone is unable to attend, if weather forces us inside, if a car breaks, if everyone gets violently ill, if I acquire a severe burn, I am better able to roll with it.

So on to the planning. In mid October I start thinking about the holidays: Thanksgiving & Christmas. I send out feelers and invitations (with no expectations). I have learned that when I plan for an event like this the most important person to make happy is me. If I'm happy with what I'm planning then everyone else will be happier. I try to get information from invitees about what they need to make it feel like the holiday.

For instance, to me Thanksgiving is always going to require turkey and dressing with mashed potatoes and gravy. Everything and anything else become lovely additions. But I know of other people who must have cranberries from a can or the right version of yams etc. The more details I can get from my partygoers the happier we all will be.

Usually guest volunteer to bring items, but this is never required. This year dinner is going to include a couple of yummy new items from my guests/family: a sweet potato soufflé and oat dinner rolls. I'm really looking forward to trying these. But if it doesn't come to pass It'll be fine. After all I still have my mashed potatoes and gravy.

Other information I like to know is who is going to be coming and staying at my house and for approximately how many nights. Will others be staying with other friends, at their own houses or at hotels? Why does this matter? Well for one thing other meals may need to be planned for (or stated as 'on your own') and other activities might be fun to arrange.

Once I know these things real planning starts. Let me demonstrate:

I know a couple of my friends may/will be arriving on Wednesday after they get off work (midmorning). They live 3.5 hours from my home so I expect they may arrive sometime between late in the afternoon and late at night. It would be nice of me (and helpful to my own food plans) to provide dinner.

As I started thinking about autumnal foods, multi day visits, leftovers, and breakfast/brunch on Thanksgiving day a couple of ideas/themes came to mind: 1. apples and cinnamon and 2. middle eastern food. This planning phase is going to evolve as we get closer but here's the current menu plan:

Dinner on Weds night Bean & turkey chili with crackers/tortilla chips (here we have a super healthy dinner choice to help balance the desserts of the holiday) Apple cinnamon & regular baklavas (this lets me create additional desserts for Thanksgiving including one that has the apple cinnamon flavors that I love.)

Breakfast/brunch on Thurs morning, I'm still deciding between:

1. Scalloped potato and sausage casserole with huckleberry muffins
   Here's a version of the breakfast casserole
INSERT IMAGE of orange cake
2. Mideastern buffet: pita & tzatziki, vegetables, hummus, cheeses, nuts, olives, orange cake
   Here's a version of the orange cake

Thanksgiving dinner = the traditional fare plus the new stuff sweet potato souffle, oat rolls, pumpkin bars w/cream cheese frosting, cheesecake, and the rest of the apple and/or standard nut baklava.

The rest of the weekend food will be about leftovers. Though Chinese takeout may make an appearance.

As for activities I currently have too many things in mind and this will narrow as we start getting closer to the day. I'm taking the whole week off from work so maybe...

Possible activities:

1. Create gingerbread houses. I've done this on several Thanksgivings and it's fun if frenetic. (Check out previous gingerbread houses at the end of this post
2. Going to Lava Hot Springs to soak.
3. Set up the lightbox and play with still life photography/art - everyone coming is an artist of one kind or another.
4. Create tea advent boxes - we all love tea so this could be fun.
5. Drawing names for the Christmas book exchange based on the Icelandic custom.
   For more information on this custom see: NPR article or Yahoo article
6. Get the holiday decorations out of the basement and put up the outdoor ones.
7. And of course there's always playing board games or watching movies, and napping which I may desperately need.

Will we do all of this? No it's just not possible. Will we do some of this? Absolutely. If everyone bails because of weather or other reasons will I still have a great Thanksgiving? Certainly because I like everything that I've listed. - Jenny

Gingerbread house 1:

Gingerbread house 2:

Gingerbread house 3: