Feasting and Football

This year was an unusual year as far as Thanksgivings go for us. The Iron Bowl was the day after Thanksgiving. Thus our lovely friends the Chaki's who are local Auburn residents hosted Thanksgiving for the families we tailgate with each game. We had a great time. The food was scrumptious! Here are a few pics from our Thanksgiving holiday and from the game. Thanks so much Sheila and Jim!

The Kid's Table

Our Hosts-The Chaki Family

The Langham's

The Harris Family

Tiger Walk

A sign put up after the game. Ha. I LOVE it. I consider Auburn's performance a moral victory. There sure were some elephant fans sweating all around us the entire game. And yeah, I said it...elephant fans. Outback Bowl here we come! For a first year coached team I'd say Auburn did pretty well!

Thankful

Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow I thought it only appropriate to reflect on the things in my life of which I am most thankful. I could very easily create a list nearly as long as Santa's. I'll limit myself to ten reasons I am thankful this year. I realize that all of the items on my list are God's blessings. Most of all I am thankful for the eternal life and forgiveness He has granted me.

1. I am so thankful to have a husband who is supportive, loving, intelligent, creative, artistic, thoughtful, handsome, and who is truly my best friend.

2. I am so grateful to have a job that I enjoy and colleagues I genuinely like. I realize that in the current economic environment I am lucky to even be employed. I feel even more blessed to be in a field that I love and can picture myself in for the long haul.

3. I am jubilant at the fact that my brother, Bryan, has returned home safely from his second tour in Iraq. His safe return is certainly an answered prayer.

4. I will give thanks this year for the wonderful blessing of having my grandmother in my life. She is amazing. I love her more than I can express. She will be turning 85 years old next week. I am so thankful for her good health and for her presence in my life.

5. I am so grateful for the opportunity to further my education. I know that not everyone even gets the opportunity to attend undergrad. I realize I am truly blessed to be working on my Ph.D. An even bigger blessing and reason to be thankful is that I get to go to school for free because I work at an institution of higher education.

6. I am thankful for my parents. Through the good and the bad they have shaped me into the person that I am today. I am also so grateful for the wonderful relationship I have with my in-laws. They make every effort to show me I am loved and important to them. This relationship is something I also recognize not everyone has in their life.

7. I give thanks this year for our health. Judd and I are so blessed to be healthy and in love. We realize that tomorrow is not promised.

8. I am so very grateful for our dog, Cole. He brings us such joy. He fills the void of being child free. Because our parenthood needs are met with him we will be able to wait until I graduate to start a family with a human baby. Ha. He is our child. We love him and can't imagine our lives without him.

9. I am thankful for our precious friends. You know who you are. Our lives would not be the same without you.

10. Finally, I am so very thankful for the freedoms that come with being an American. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have a life of prosperity and the choice of my religion.

This is a great time to reflect on what it most important. What are you thankful for?

A Southern Thanksgiving

I was thinking today about all of the family tradition dishes that are served at my mother's Thanksgiving table. (I laughed to myself beacuse in a matter of minutes I was able to find pictures of all of our usual thanksgiving foods on the Southern Living and Cottage Living websites). This post is especially for our northern friends we made while living in Philly. When we discussed Thanksgiving I realized our spreads are completely different.

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We are a southern family tried and true (except for my dad's 1/2 Yankee blood). Bless his heart. My paternal granddaddy (Poppa) was from Illinois. Shhh...don't tell anybody. Our disclaimer to this fact is that he moved to south Georgia to live his life with his new bride at a young age. He realized what was good for him and never left.

This Thanksgiving will be a little different for everyone. We can thank the network hosting the Iron Bowl (when the University of Alabama and Auburn University play each other) for this oddity. Thanksgiving is the day before the Iron Bowl. Thus, we will be in Auburn having our meal of thanks with our tailgating friends and not at one of our mother's tables. Weird. I am trying to get used to the idea. I know we will have a great time, but it just won't be what we are used to doing for this holiday.

Even if we wanted to eat with my family this year we wouldn't be doing it in our traditional way. My parents are going to my aunt's for Thanksgiving. Is it just me or is the whole Thanksgiving Day off kilter this year? I know they will have a lovely time. I will miss not being there with my extended family.

Anyway...back to the point of this post. Sorry, I ramble sometimes. I was thinking about what dishes I equate with Thanksgiving. Because I have grown up with a mother and grandmother from Rome, Georgia (a beautiful small north Georgia city) I have become accustomed to eating all of the southern delicacies associated with this special day. (Now, read this with a thick southern drawl. Think Paula Deen. It will make the food look even better. I promise.)

Mom usually prepares an oven roasted turkey. My husband will also usually fry a turkey. (Yeah, one of our favorite wedding presents was a deep fryer. Call us country...we don't mind.) We've found it is also very handy to boil peanuts at tailgates. This is another tasty southern treat. I'll do a typical tailgate foods post at a later time.

The typical casseroles are also prepared. The sweet potata' casserole is topped with marshmallows or pecans. The green bean casserole has fried onions on top of it.

Mom usually makes a cranberry and orange relish to eat with the turkey.

She also makes giblet gravy. This is a true southern dish. If you have to ask what parts of the turkey are considered the giblets than you're probably not from the deep south.

We also serve collards at our Thanksgiving feast. My father-in-law is the collard master. He has this dish preparation down to a science.

Mom usually prepares our Christmas and Thanksgiving dressing on the same day. She makes two pans and freezes one for Christmas. Her dressing is amazing!

She also makes some yummy homemade yeast rolls. Mmmm...I can smell them now.

For dessert we usually have pecan pie and homemade chocolate pie with mom's tremendous meringue. Her pies are so good she used to sell them when my brother and I were little.

Since I knew I wasn't going to get to have all of these yummy treats with my family this year I at least wanted to experience them electronically. I am officially starving just thinking about all of these yummy southern comfort foods. I will share recipes for these dishes soon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Pictures courtesy of Southern Living and Cottage Living).

Storing Up For Winter

Last night as I was packing up all of our Halloween decorations, I was thinking about what to put out for the month of November. I don't want to do too much because we will not be celebrating Thanksgiving at our house. Instead we will be having our meal of thanks with our tailgating friends and family in Auburn because the Iron Bowl is the following day.

I want our decorations to be something that will easily tie into Christmas so that I don't have to redecorate so much. I always wrap our presents in brown shipping paper. Our tree is usually decorated with white lights and silver, white, blue, and brown decorations. I need to find some ribbon for the tree that will work well with those colors.

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I really like the idea of using materials from nature. God made so many things of beauty that are right outside our doors. It is just a matter of collecting them. I think I want to use pine cones and nuts this year. I found some lovely images using natural elements courtesy of Southern Accents, Southern Living, Martha Stewart, and Cottage Living. I think I feel a nature walk coming on. We live in Alabama, there is no need to pay for pine cones. Ha.

A quick and elegant centerpiece might be something like this sheath of wheat

Or something that may tie in better with Christmas-This pine cone centerpiece

I really loved this wreath. It has pecans, walnuts, peanuts, pine cones, and orange or grapefruit slices. I love the peanut touch. How truly Southern!

This nut assortment is an easy way to add holiday spirit. I love the way it looks with the candles.

I think for Christmas all I need to do is add some extra greenery to the pine cones and I'll be set.