My weekend was spent working and also making a messenger bag for my daughter to carry her school books in. It is now more than half done. I has been a very big project, and I hope within a week I am going to have a TOTALLY AWESOME blog entry for you all about the creation of this school bag. For now you'll have to wait. I know the suspense is just too much. LOL!
Today my heart and mind is turned towards family plans for Thanksgiving.
I have been trying to connect with family for dates to get together over the last week and I am just getting my answers now. My side of the family is going to Quebec to see my brother (My Mom and sister, not me and hubby and kids), so this year we have Thanksgiving just at my husband's side of the family. Nice and easy schedule. :-)
If you have not yet started plannning your Thanksgiving menu and coordinating dates with family, and you live in Canada, it's time to get on this.
Organized Thanksgiving:
1. Select dates you will meet with various family and/or friends. Get those dates onto your calendar asap!.2. Coordinate who will participate in the food preparation. Do you all bring some? Does one person tend to make most of it at their house because they are hosting?
3. Write a menu. This includes all the classic fixings:
- Turkey
- Stuffing
- Gravy - we insist on homemade and LOTS of it.
- Cranberries
- Potatoes (scalloped, or mashed, or oven roasted)
- Rice - sometimes we include rice too, but not always.
- Butternut Squash (in our house anyways)
- Vegetable or 2 more (yup, lots of veggies, it's a feast!)
- Salad
- Buns
- Dessert. Dessert MUST include a homemade pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream and some vanilla ice cream on the side. An apple pie as well or an apple crumble (a.k.a. apple brown betty) is usually around too. At Grandma's house there is always Hello Dolly squares, Date Squares, cheese and crackers, etc.
4. Order a turkey if using a butcher. If not using a butcher, these will pop up in the freezer and cooler sections of all grocery stores starting about now. Shop early and get the size bird you want for the price you want. If you leave it, you get stuck with an over-sized bird or an under-sized bird.
Do you see why North American's are renowned for napping after their turkey dinner? LOL! One small scoop of everything and you still have a very full plate. The beauty of this is that you have lots of leftovers that you put into lunches for the next day or two, or you work some of those ingredients back into your family dinner, and this saves your work for the next few days in the kitchen.
The end result is a family and extended family that feels nurtured and cared for and was able to enjoy good family times together and build memories to cherish. Ours usually includes a walk at the park. Sometimes we collect fall leaves and decorate the dinner table with them. Nice and rustic feeling.
Next week we will review the shopping and plan ahead cooking for the menu. What can be done ahead, and what needs to wait.
One last thing, as the long weekend approaches, if you have a family, you will want to plan when you can complete your weekly cleaning and shopping routines to keep yourself on track. You can't very well send the family into the next week without the laundry caught up and lunch supplies in the house, though some of that will come from leftover turkey! YAY!
Sometimes it's OK to back off your routines a bit because life was busy, but you still need to plan for the parts you consider to be absolutely essential, and when you plan to squeeze those into the weekend.
Happy Planning and Happy Monday,
Cassie
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