Thanksgiving

When Hard Work is Worth It

Like many people in the second week of November, I’m in the midst of Thanksgiving planning. I’ve been working on our menu (I think it’s finalized), planning the table, making sure I know what we’re doing in school for the next week-and-a-half, and starting my shopping list. Pretty much every spare moment has been dedicated to thinking about how this year’s Thanksgiving is going to go.

In the height of my preparation, I mentioned how much I love Thanksgiving, and how much I’m looking forward to it. Turkey was listening, and looked at me like I’d sprouted a second head. He then said, “But it’s so much work for you…how can you like it?”

This prompted a conversation about how lots of things that are hard work are likable…taking care of a newborn, for example. Or a big project at work. Or so many of the things that we do, partly because we have to or need to, and partly because we really love the end results (and even the process, as hard as it is). Because in the end, it’s all worth it. And holidays are up there for me, as far as things that are a lot of work for me that I really enjoy, because the end result is always worth it.

This was a great teachable moment, but it also made me feel good, because at least one of my children has noticed the effort that I put into making holidays special. I feel even better knowing that he now understands that while it is hard work, I also love doing it!

The Top Five–Holidays

Since tomorrow is one of my favorite holidays, I thought I’d share a holiday-themed “Top Five” list!

  • Christmas–Shocking, right? If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you know that this is my very favorite of the holidays….an over-the-top birthday party for Jesus! From Advent through Epiphany, the celebration doesn’t stop. Extra time at church, fun family traditions, special music and movies, commemoration days to celebrate, decorations, gift-giving, cooking and baking galore…what’s not to love?
  • Easter–Easter is the highlight of the church year, and that’s why I love it so much…all the time spent at church, especially during Holy Week, and Easter Sunday itself. I know there was a time we didn’t get to go to two church services, plus enjoy breakfast at church on Easter, but I really can’t remember it, and I don’t want it any other way. Plus, there’s a special family dinner to cap it all off!
  • St. Patrick’s Day–I’m not even Irish, but I love this holiday. I love that its roots come from church tradition, I love decorating in green and shamrocks, I love our special family traditions that we enjoy on this day every year (including school traditions), and I love the special foods we eat on this holiday.
  • Thanksgiving–This is a holiday that’s a lot of work for one day, but we’ve still built so many special family traditions around it that I can’t help but love it. From our “Thankful Tree” and special school unit throughout November, to the seven pies I bake every Thanksgiving Eve, to the pie for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving, plus the Christmas Lego building, turkey soup making, and town tree-lighting that same day…it’s just a fantastically fun family day(s)!
  • Independence Day–And, finally, the holiday that inspired this post…the birthday of our country! I love the patriotic songs (the Fourth of July and Christmas always mean time for the Boston Pops Orchestra!), the red, white, & blue everywhere, the parades and fireworks, and, again, the special foods I make for our family’s celebration. Oh, and the watching of Holiday Inn (firecracker dance, anyone?), and Yankee Doodle Dandy every year on the fourth…it’s so much fun!

What are your family’s favorite holidays?

2014-15 School Year–Week Twelve

Better late than never is the best I can say about this wrap-up!

Our twelfth week of school (the “Thanksgiving School” week) was November 17-21. But we also had two more days of school last week, so I decided to add those into this wrap-up. But with Thanksgiving and everything…well, I put it off a lot!

To be honest, a lot of what we did those seven days is a blur, but I’ll see what I remember. Turkey and Bunny continued to work on using scientific notation in math, and revisited measuring angles and other activities in geometry. Ladybug continued to borrow while subtracting, and she’s quite good at it. Next week, she starts multiplication!

In history, we learned more about the Crusades, and about Richard the Lion-Hearted. We also learned about the Jewish Diaspora. Learning about the history of Thanksgiving in America took up the bulk of our time in history, however.

Our science lessons moved from the leaves of the plant to the roots. We read the story of Rip Van Winkle in our poetry and short stories book, and I realized that I had never actually read that story myself. I really enjoyed it, and other than all of the complaining about the writing assignments that accompanied it, I think Turkey and Bunny really enjoyed it, too!

We finished up our thankful tree this week, and did a few Thanksgiving crafts. I’m glad the children still enjoy doing these sorts of activities…I don’t know how much longer we’ll have with stuff like this.

Tomorrow we get back to a more or less regular schedule, with a little Christmas fun thrown in!

Chickadee Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving from Chickadee!

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If you think you’ve seen this shirt before, you’re right. Two years ago, even though it was huge on her, I had Chickadee wear it for Thanksgiving. All of her older siblings had worn it, and I was worried that she might have a huge growth spurt, and not fit into it for her second Thanksgiving. It turns out she didn’t outgrow it, so she wore it again last year, and it fit perfectly. I really wanted to see it one more time, though, so even though it’s now kind of small (although not as small as I had feared, since Chickadee is the most petite of our children), I put her it on her one more time, and it’s still adorable!

As always, Chickadee is one of the many things that I am thankful for!

The Thanksgiving Feast–2014

We had our standard Thanksgiving feast today: turkey and gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, green beans with almonds, and rolls. I did add brussels sprouts for the first time, since they’ve become the children’s favorite vegetable, but that was the only new addition.

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We had a record seven pies for dessert after our annual family viewing of Holiday Inn. Frankly, I can’t believe anybody had room for dessert, but we managed to put a dent in them. There’s still plenty left, though, for more desserts the next few days, and our traditional pie for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving!

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I think I’ve gotten pretty good at setting a festive table. I especially love the addition of the Lego turkey…it’s so us, and so fun!

I hope your Thanksgiving was as happy and full of love and laughter as ours was!

Pie Day!

As is our tradition, I made seven pies today…one for each member of the family:

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Here’s the pie lineup:

  • Ryan–Peanut butter cup
  • Me–Wassail (cranberry apple)
  • Turkey–Pecan
  • Bunny–Butterscotch
  • Moose–S’mores
  • Ladybug–Caramel apple
  • Chickadee–Pumpkin

Technically, Chickadee still can’t choose her pie flavor, since she doesn’t really have a favorite yet, so she was assigned pumpkin. Maybe next year she’ll pick her own!

Revisiting Thanksgiving School

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As I was preparing for our annual eight days of Thanksgiving School, I realized that for the last few years, I’ve been using the same outline. In addition to our month-long “Thankful Tree,” we have eight days of special, Thanksgiving-related themes, and read the same favorite books out loud. The crafts change from year to year (as do field trips and cooking/baking activities), but I do have a rotation for those, as well…and we always make hand and footprint turkeys.

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It’s so nice not having to plan it out every year, so I thought I’d share what’s been working for us:

As always, this is one of my favorite parts of the school year!

Tasty Tuesday–Holiday Feasts 2013

We had another fun season of special meals this year! Here’s a wrap-up of the feasts we enjoyed…

We started the holiday season with a typical Thanksgiving dinner, followed by an epic six pies for dessert:

On Christmas Eve we had our annual “pick out dinner.” Ryan chose Velveeta/Rotel dip, I picked my favorite jalapeno popper spread, Turkey asked for deviled eggs, Bunny wanted cream cheese stuffed peppers, Moose chose mozzarella sticks, Ladybug asked for cucumber sandwiches, and I picked red and green Goldfish crackers for Chickadee. Plus, we had the standard buffalo Chex mix, carrots, finger Jell-o in Christmas colors and shapes, and a cheese, cracker, and summer sausage plate. (We had Jesus’ birthday cake for dessert after church that night.)

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Our fancy Christmas dinner was held the day after Christmas, when Ryan’s parents could join us. The star of the meal was a pork crown roast. We also had stuffing, cranberries, and roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and brussels sprouts:

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The Christmas desserts were a rustic apple-pear pie with French vanilla ice cream and cream puffs:

On New Year’s Eve, I made French onion soup in my new soup crocks:

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We didn’t have a Christmas tea party this year, but we did have a New Year’s Eve hot chocolate bar!

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I made our traditional New Year’s Day dinner of pork roast, along with a cherry-pineapple Jell-o salad, twice-baked potatoes, and roast carrots and brussels sprouts, with a chocolate peppermint trifle for dessert:

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The final feast of the holiday season is always Ryan’s birthday/Epiphany. This year, he chose fish tacos with a spicy cabbage slaw, and Guinness cake for dessert:

The time of feasting is over for now, but I’m sure we have plenty of special family meals in our future!

Thanksgiving Dinner 2013

The table:

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The feast:

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Just desserts:

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In case you hadn’t heard, I made six pies this year…one for each family member that could actually ask for a variety. (Poor Chickadee didn’t get her own request, but she didn’t seem to mind!) Ryan picked caramel apple, Turkey asked for pecan, Bunny wanted butterscotch, Moose requested S’mores, Ladybug chose pumpkin, and I made my favorite “wassail pie” for myself!

This was a very special Thanksgiving, because we had china on our table for the first time. The children were so excited to be using something that belonged to their great-grandmother, so I made it a little extra special and added our champagne flutes for their sparkling grape juice. This is by far the prettiest table I’ve ever set…I love having a piece of family history!

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The Turkey–2013

Our Thanksgiving turkey started the day having a lovely cold water bath in the kitchen sink, in the hopes that it would finish thawing in time to go in the oven (it did):

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It was then prepped with lots of butter and salt and pepper:

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About four-and-a-half hours later, it was done!

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