Preppin' it today

Its prep day for me which means I will have more time to spend with my peeps on Thanksgiving Day.  This year I am doing what I did last year, because I found it works so well!  Brine the bird on Tuesday, roast it on Wednesday, then pop all of the pre-assembled sides into the oven on Thursday.  {a couple of the sides are all ready to cook!} Dinner is on the table faster with less mess in the kitchen!  And though it may seem wasteful, I am using foil pans that I can simply rinse and place into the recycle bin to keep from having to kill the dishwasher!  

I had plans to do something different for the tablescape, but in the end, I just pulled out stuff I already had and arranged it a bit differently, adding in candles and some pretty new (paper) napkins.  {I added a couple of leaves to the table, planning for 9 people, but I'm still not sure if we will have that number.}  We will serve ourselves from the kitchen island then head to the table to eat, saying grace and toasting each other with a glass of wine.  This Thanksgiving may look different in a lot of ways, but we will carry on our tradition of saying what we are each thankful for.  And on Friday we will skip the tree farm and use what we have at home to decorate for Christmas.

Different, but OK.  As a family, we will get through the rest of this year!

Gina