Our Canadian friends have already celebrated this holiday. Anyone who has followed me for any time at all, knows that I love Fall. It’s my favorite season and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. For oh so many reasons:

*In Texas we have much improved weather over our beastly hot summers.

*We don’t have fall leaves they way you lucky folks who live in the Northeast or Northwest, but we get a small share.

* We don’t have to worry about gifts.

*We’ve always gone around the table stating what we’re thankful for. This year I found brown paper placemats on which we get to write down those items. After family, I’m sure my list will include the Pelicans and Cormorants that have returned earlier than usual.

*We get to be with family. We don’t have a large family. Just nine of us all in Fort Worth. Cousins and aunt and uncle in Wichita Falls. When they’ve come it’s a crowd, and so much fun, but of course, they won’t come this year. We learned to play Word Salad with them, a form of charades. One of my daughter’s MIL usually comes, but she won’t this year. We’ll eat outside in our yard with a table for each family at a safe distance from others. Picture a triangle with everyone sitting on the outer edges of the figure facing in.

*The food is yummy. I know some folks don’t like turkey, dressing, and cranberries, but for me that’s the perfect meal. All the side dishes are nice, and my daughters make scrumptious side dishes. But I tend to focus on those three main selections. I don’t eat bread at this meal because I’ve got it there in the dressing! I’ll have two dressings (not stuffing. My husband puts celery inside the bird, but that’s it.)

For one dressing I’ll use the standard Herbed Pepperidge Farm Mix. I’ll make it with vegetable broth because one daughter is a vegetarian. The other dressing for the other daughter is something I found at Trader Joe’s—a GF version that even has cranberries in it. I just have to pop that in the microwave. I made a GF version one year. Kind of a lot of trouble, and I didn’t get the seasoning right.

Yes, I do make “real” cranberries. My mom always did. During the year when she’d make porkchops, she’d used the canned jelly kind, but for this holiday, it’s the real deal. Now for many years I thought it was hard to make these, but after we lost Mom, I had to take over. I’ve laughed many times over how easy this dish is.

I also make Mom’s pumpkin pies, and I make real whipped cream It’s only once a year. Seems appropriate to splurge.

We’ll have one person from each family serve their family’s plates. Not quite according to the suggestions which is for one person to serve all the plates, but I think we’ll be okay. We recognize how blessed we are to be able to get together this year. We could’ve had a really cold day. That’s not uncommon, but at 72, we’ll be perfect outside. If the wind picks up too much, we’ll move to the garage which we did for some event because the wind was nuts, which it can be off the lake.

Prayers for all of you who may have empty chairs at your table this year, either a permanent empty chair or one because of being cautious. My heart goes out to you. We just have to be strong for a few more months. Wear the mask. It really does work. We have to get a handle on this virus. It is real.

Are you celebrating Thanksgiving this year? What changes have you made? What’s your favorite dish for the Thanksgiving meal? Love to hear from you.

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