Let's talk turkey!

I'm sitting here at our dining room table, kim's doing her homework next to me and James is taking his first nap of the day (yes, it's 5pm and I'll probably regret letting him sleep when he's up until 11pm) and man am I beat! We had our homeschool group's soccer practice this morning...

*A picture of our team! 

*James & I watching Sissy kim play!

then we ran to Home Depot for some more milkweed to satisfy our starving caterpillars (I'll post about them soon!) but of course Home Depot was out of milkweed! Thankfully a great friend, and fellow homeschool mama, was able to swap plants with me! Again, showing the importance of having a village! Next we rushed off to Kim's cheer practice and now ... WE'RE HOME! It's clearly a leftovers for dinner kind of night and thankfully my best friend and her son will be here to sit with us since this week my husband will be working late every night. So as I'm sitting here helping Kim with her workbook, it occurred to me that this year is literally about to be over. I swear we were just ringing in 2017 yesterday! And now here we are with 2018 right around the corner! Well, as crazy as that is, it means that my favorite time of the year is officially here! Now, I do enjoy Halloween but if it were up to me, my Christmas tree would be up year round and we'd be hosting a big turkey dinner at least twice a month. Hmmm ... that's actually not a bad idea! I'm the type that watches QVC christmas shop specials, leaves my tv on Hallmark channel as soon as the Christmas movies start (they're already on by the way you guys!) and may or may not break into a sweat thinking about having my first cold glass of Nog. We are avid car carolers all throughout the year as well and my kids can really belt out a mean version of "Holly Jolly Cat-mas!" Yes, "cat-mas" not "Christmas". Why? Well we have an unusually large and very strange cat named Miss Holly (the cat in my cover picture), throw in some toddler creativity and a mom who may be just a smidge too obsessed with her cats and wahlah! Holly jolly Cat-mas was born! And it's only a matter of days before my car filled with caroling children will be happily decked out in its antlers and red reindeer nose to help spread that Christmas cheer wherever we go! So as you can tell, we're Christmas nuts and proud of it! But let me rein myself in a little bit here and let's talk turkey day.

Hosting Thanksgiving is something we've done every year since we started our family and I take great pride in organizing the meal plan and staging the table. I like to think of it as a "Homemaker's Holiday". A day where everything I enjoy doing on a daily basis is turned up a notch. Our front door opens and closes over and over as friends, who've become family to us, arrive. There's hugging and small talk, kids running up to say hello and then darting off to play. I just adore having a home filled with those who mean the most to me. The conversations in the air, people laughing, the clinking of dishes mixed with the heavenly aromas of everything cooking, it just feels so warm, so right. Then on top of that I get to have everyone sit down at my own table, join us in grace and eat to their hearts content. Filling their bellies while also filling their hearts at the same time. 

So while we're on the topic of thanksgiving (which I'm sure will come up again in another post) just really quick I want to share with you all my favorite turkey recipe thus far! Every year I make an herb roasted turkey and let me tell you, it's to die! Not to toot my own horn but if you've ever tried, and failed, at making a turkey you know how satisfying it is to finally discover your go to turkey recipe! I stumbled across mine I want to say, three years ago and haven't even thought about deviating from the plan ever since then! 

I'm actually thinking of grabbing a nice sized turkey breast from the grocery store this week and doing a run through of the recipe one good time before the big day. This recipe (that I will link below) is great because it's actually written for a medium sized turkey breast as a weekly dinner idea. I just double/triple the recipe for the big bird on thanksgiving. 

My go to turkey recipe!

*not my picture.

So if you're new to turkey, can't seem to find a recipe that you like or just want to try something new, I highly recommend trying this version. And if I go ahead and make it this week I'll be sure to put up a quick post going into some good detail!

I'm curious, what's a Thanksgiving dish that graces your table every year? Aside from turkey, some of our favorites are candied yams, mashed potatoes (I just found a new recipe for roasted garlic mashed potatoes that I'm dying to try out!) creamy garlic mushrooms and honey glazed baby carrots! And now I'm super hungry and think I'll head over to the kitchen and warm up those leftovers haha! So, I'll leave you with this little tid bit of old school wisdom ...

 "A strong family, has well worn seats at their dinner table." 

Don't make family meals only mandatory for special occasions when every day you have together should be treated as such. Turn off your phones, tvs, tablets or whatever and talk to each other while you eat. And maybe instead of jumping up and rushing off when you're all done, clear the plates and pull out a board game! Enjoy eachothers company and talk about your day. Maybe make that a little goal for yourself this week. I know we're all busy, always running around and sometimes our schedules don't align for meal times, but maybe just try a little bit harder this week. Pick one day and set a time for dinner, make sure everyone knows it and plan something special. Whether it's ordering out for pizza or making a turkey! Just try to relax a little bit, talk freely, laugh with each other and don't jump up just because you're done eating. Stay at the table for as long as you can, and just savor the time you have together. 

- God bless!