Happy Thanksgiving!

The Sentimental Quilter LOVES Thanksgiving. It's a great opportunity to show my sentimental side and reflect on all of the things I have to be grateful for this past year. (Not to say I don't do that every day anyway . . . . )  Instead of focusing on those negative things that have disrupted life and made it a little more difficult, I really try to remind myself of all of the abundance surrounding me.

I'll be making the pumpkin pie today and getting a head start on some other dishes for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. 

Last night I watched a wonderful documentary on PBS - The Pilgrims. Produced by Ric Burns (the brother of Ken Burns of "The Civil War" fame), the film focuses on some of the dark truths surrounding the first Thanksgiving and the pilgrims' Mayflower voyage. It's not exactly your Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special but worth watching.

"From childhood on Americans are taught to think of the voyage of the Mayflower and the coming of the Pilgrims as the true founding moment of America,” said Burns, “and we honor them as such every year on Thanksgiving – even though they came thirteen years after the founding of Jamestown in 1607. The real story of the Pilgrims — who they were, what drove them on, what happened to them in the new world, how they succeeded and how they failed and why we remember them as we do – is far more gripping, poignant, harrowing and strange – and far more revealing – than the Thanksgiving myth we think we know.”

Not a happy story but one that should be told. I think it's being repeated tonight and/or tomorrow but check your local station for times. Read more here or watch the trailer if this interests you at all.

This year, like most, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are cooking the turkey and bringing it over. All I have to do is make all the sides. It's a feast. And yeah, sometimes I go a little nuts with those sides because I love having so many Thanksgiving leftovers for the following weekend so I don't have to cook much. And there's always a lot to give away. We'll have Turkey, stuffing (2 kinds), green beans, roasted cauliflower & carrots, corn pudding, creamed spinach, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry/cream cheese/walnut "trifle salad"* (but also jellied cranberry sauce for those who need the canned version), pumpkin pie. Did I leave anything out? Oh yeah, in honor of my mom -  her sweet & sour cabbage, which I never ate while she was alive LOL but now love, go figure. And, my sister's bringing a chocolate chip cheesecake. So many carbs and calories. Too decadent. I'd better get started . . . . 

I am feeling so blessed in so many ways that I could go on and on . . .

I hope all of you in the U.S. have a wonderful holiday surrounded by family and loved ones. Don't forget to count your blessings.  Is there anything you're especially grateful for this Thanksgiving? Take a minute to reflect on those things. If nothing else, I'll bet most of you should probably be grateful for having more fabric than you will ever EVER need, haha.  

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* Here's the recipe for the cranberry cream cheese "trifle". I use walnuts instead of pecans and don't mix them into the cream cheese mixture as in the recipe - I just layer them on top so those who don't like nuts in my family can easily pick them off  : )  It's like having dessert with the meal. 

Have a happy Turkey day!

                                         

   -Kathy