Thanksgiving in our home!

 In our home, you won’t find anything traditional for Thanksgiving.
We have our Christmas decorations up, for one. When people ask “What about Thanksgiving??? Why do you have your Christmas decorations up already? Don’t you celebrate Thanksgiving???”
I respond, “ABSOLUTELY! We LOVE Thanksgiving and we celebrate it HAPPILY, with Christmas decor!!! From November through the end of December, we are extremely busy with making gifts, decorating, practicing Christmas plays, Christmas cantata, and the rest of life in general, it makes TOTAL sense to decorate early for us.”
Also, our meal for Thanksgiving is odd. We have so many family dinners (to which we are EXCEEDINGLY grateful) that feature the usual Thanksgiving fare of turkey, dressing, and sides of casseroles galore, that several years back, we started a new tradition. 

Thanksgiving Lasagna! 

I splurge a little and buy nicer cheeses and I start Wednesday, before Thanksgiving preparing. Early on Wednesday morning I fry up the beef and sweet italian sausage. I sauté the mushrooms, spinach, onions, and garlic. I add those together and then I add the spices, and the tomatoes. I bring it to a simmer and I let it cook on top of the stove, low and slow. I want that loose pan of ingredients to condense down to a thick, rich, exceedingly delicious sauce that bursts with flavor!

This year while the sauce was marrying on the stove, I had an idea. My husband LOVES his grandmothers Christmas cookies. When she was younger and more able, she would make up huge batches of them and have them all the time during the season. She would sometimes send home a bowl full with Shannon or she would send me some of the dough so I could make up a dozen or so for him, whenever he was eager for a sweet treat. 

I searched my recipe box and found the recipe in her hand. A treasure to me. 

This made up at least 5 lbs of dough I think. It’s a HUGE batch!

After I got the cookie doughs made up and  in the fridge to chill, I mixed up all our cheeses, got the pasta ready and assembled the lasagnas. I say lasagnas because I make at least 2-3 pans. We have some big eaters around here. haha
After the lasagnas were assembled, I covered them and they were put in the fridge and all I have to do on Thanksgiving day is to get them in the oven. It helps so much for me to do this prep work so I can have a nice, relaxing day with my family! 

 I also made up some of our favorite ginger snap cookies. Another huge recipe, I have dough for both cookies still in my fridge! It makes enough for 11 dozen cookies! 

 This year is our first year with Cameo not home for the holidays. So we had to make plans to have them with us. We decided a lunch meal would be best because they had plans with Houston’s side of the family too. It was a WONDERFUL day. I don’t think it could have gone better… unless they were able to stay a bit longer. 😉 

We had fantastic food, games, and lively conversation. I love our Thanksgiving traditions. I love our family. Thank you Lord, giver of all good things for these incredible blessings.