Halloween is not even a week in the rear-view and I’m already dashing headlong into Thanksgiving preparations! It’s coming up in two weeks, people! This is not a drill!
This morning in a fit of… something, probably lack of desire to exercise… I took down and put away all the Halloween decorations and replaced them with my meager Thanksgiving decorations.
I love decorating for the season, and I really enjoy Fall Décor specifically, but I have a very hard time paying $25 for a wooden pumpkin, even if it’s handpainted, and even if I really like the pumpkin and pine for it each year at this time. Oh well. I keep it in my Etsy shopping cart for annual admiration, hoping each year that the shop will have a massive sale and I’ll be able to get it for $10.
You know who has surprisingly good seasonal décor? Michael’s, that’s who. I usually spend a morning in early fall, or, as seasonal buying seems to begin earlier and earlier each year, in early summer, wandering through Michael’s, admiring the stuffed scarecrows and fabric owls and tabletop gourds. Would my life be vastly improved by tabletops gourds? Probably not, but I imagine them in my life just the same.
(photos from Michaels.com; although they are all on DRASTIC sale they are not available online and very possibly not available in store either; cute nonetheless)
I don’t really know what more I NEED, by way of fall decorations. I have a plain orange pumpkin that I use to bridge the decorating gap between Halloween and fall. I have a table runner with leaves. I have a small wooden pumpkin. I have a small wooden “gratitude tree” from which Carla hangs little paper leaves on which she’s written things she is thankful for. I have a wooden welcome sign for my front door in the shape of a leaf. I removed the jack-o-lantern faces from the pumpkins, so they are sitting on the front stoop, pretending like they were meant to be fall pumpkins and not Halloween pumpkins. I have two or three ceramic leaf bowls that I can never really figure out how to incorporate; they are not quite deep enough to be candy dishes, so I think I generally use them to hold cashews or pistachios when we have Thanksgiving guests. I have a plastic Thanksgiving plate and bowl for Carla, although she may be too big for them. I saved the fall window clings from last year. I have some small wooden leaves that I don’t know how to use – but I’ll find a way, mark my words; I used small wooden pumpkins on all the windows for Halloween and they are fall-ish enough to stay through Thanksgiving. I have a couple of fall hand towels.
It sounds like more than it is.
Oh! I also have a handful of colorful cloth leaves that I usually toss onto the Thanksgiving table. But this year, I used putty to stick them to my kitchen walls.
I don’t know if I love it; give me a day or so to think about it. (Who am I kidding? Now that they are up they aren’t coming down unless the putty gives up and they fall off themselves.)
What else could I possibly want, right? Especially because I am picky about decorations. I don’t like anything that’s made out of that scratchy material – what is it, sisal? I don’t like anything with words (my “welcome” door sign notwithstanding). I don’t generally like turkeys or pilgrims. Really, I’m a leaf and pumpkin girl, and I tend toward wood. And there are only so many wooden leaves and pumpkins a person can scatter about her house without feeling like they’re closing in.
It’s not just the decor that has me in a frenzy; it’s the food. Thanksgiving is so early this year! My parents arrive a week from Friday, which is very exciting but also makes me feel a little panicked. I need to come up a meal plan for while they’re here. The one thing I know for sure is that we’ll have this chicken, mushroom, and wild rice soup for dinner the night before The Big Day. At least I have already ordered my turkey – which reminds me, I need to call and request that my turkey arrive a day earlier; DONE. – and I have dusted off my Thanksgiving Timeline. That helps a teeny little bit. I can’t really do much more until my first round of Thanksgiving shopping.
I am feeling a little bit devil-may-care this year about the food. If you know me at all, you know that I am a Huge Kitchen Control Freak and do not like anyone else in the kitchen with me. But I am also realizing that I don’t actually like any of the food on Thanksgiving – except for the garlic goat cheese mashed potatoes and gravy, which I make by the bucketful – so why should I care so much about working myself to exhaustion while insisting on making the entire meal without ANY help from my family lovingly preparing it all on my own? My mother and father both like to help. Why not let them? Such a novel idea! However, jury’s still out on whether I will actually be able to turn over the reins.
While I am throwing Thanksgiving caution to the wind, I am also contemplating doing things differently. Perhaps if I made a pie I actually like – apple, maybe! or a fall version of this plum torte that I have been dreaming about since I made it this summer – I would enjoy pie! Maybe if I made some sort of wonderful Brussels sprout recipe or a delicious mushroomy mac and cheese, I would be able to fill my plate with more than my traditional pile of mashed potatoes and a slim slice of turkey!
This is not new; I have contemplated doing things differently in the past and then stuck with our family traditions. Therein lies the problem, of course: our traditions are so ingrained beloved that we’re not going to change them. Which means that I wouldn’t be lessening the cooking load at all. I am still going to have to make dressing, because it’s my husband’s favorite. I am still going to have to make pumpkin bars, because people want something pumpkin-y at Thanksgiving. And I don’t know that I have enough bandwidth – not to mention enough oven space – to add something else to the mix.
So probably all this wild and reckless and altogether deviant thinking won’t go anywhere, and I’ll do what I’ve always done. It’s fun to think about, though.
The one shake-up I am contemplating that stands the best chance of actually happening is the gravy. I love gravy so very much. And the last time I made it, it was amazing. It was this deep mahogany elixir of the gods that I would have been happy to drink by itself. But it’s finite, you know. And you have to share it with the other people at your Thanksgiving table.
So I’m wondering if I might try to make some gravy in advance. I keep seeing suggestions for doing this, and it doesn’t look terribly hard. I mean, you have to procure chicken or turkey parts/carcass in advance, which troubles me a little. But I could probably buy some chicken wings or legs for not too much money and roast them for the gravy. And I would still make gravy on Thanksgiving Day, don’t you worry. This plan is designed to produce EXTRA gravy, not less work. I want to be eating mashed potatoes and gravy well into December, is what I’m telling you.
Well, I have a little time left to fit it into my Thanksgiving Timeline. If it works out, I’ll let you know.
Because of my daughter’s obsession with crafting (slime), I’ve rediscovered Michael’s, and I do love their decor! I got a few wooden pumpkins there this year, myself!
Also: the grass is always greener! I’m over here jealous you get to plan and execute your own menu on Thanksgiving. I’ll be at a relative’s house out of town, grumpy because I’ll have no say in what we eat or don’t eat. Sigh. I say, make YOUR meal your own. Yes, if something is a favorite of your husband, make that, but why NOT mushroomy mac-and-cheese? I say, your party, your menu.
I mean, the mushroomy mac-and-cheese sounds pretty amazing.
I have 0 decorations for Thanksgiving.
On the bright side, my mom is coming to Thanksgiving at our house this year. I have no idea on meals at all. My husband doesn’t particularly like turkey and there’s only three of us, so what if I just make a roast or something? Is that sacrilegious?
No! Not sacrilegious! Eat what you like and what will be eaten. Besides my daughter, I am the only one who doesn’t like turkey. And I do EAT some; it’s the only time I eat turkey, and so I’m not opposed to it, per se. I hope you post about what you end up making!
I want to hear how the early gravy goes. I would love to have more on the day of.
I know everyone’s traditions are different, but I’ve always felt the tradition was “pie” not specifically pumpkin or pecan. We usually have something we all like, like apple or cherry. I feel like pumpkin is only tolerable with enough whipped cream on it to make the pie kind of an afterthought. We also make macaroni and cheese because it’s a sure winner with the kids. I’d say make some things you like.
I’m concerned because my MIL has offered to do dessert. It’s a nice offer, but I’ve never known her to bake. Like at all. And she’s on a very carb-restricted diet (more power to her) but I’m selfishly worried is the reason she’s doing dessert. I’m basically only there for the dressing/gravy/pie soooo, yes. Concerned.
I match your concern. And hope you report back about what she DOES make, and its edibility. And ugh. I agree with you on the pumpkin pie. Whipped cream makes it tolerable but only just.
Pumpkin cheesecake or pumpkin cream pie, however, are a different story altogether. My mom’s been making one like this for a while: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/12382/pumpkin-cream-pie/
I love hosting Thanksgiving, but rarely do bc it is the weekend of a big irish dancing competition. Tank was due early December back in 2002. Long before our dancing days. I hosted and i was HUGE. He was over 10 pounds and those last few days I would waddle downstairs in the middle of the night and heat up a huge plate of leftovers. Best part of hosting: the leftovers!