An Impromptu Thanksgiving

I hope to find you well and thankful on my all-time favorite of holidays.  Christmas is cool and all, but how can you beat a day where you can eat your weight in mashed potatoes and gravy, unzip your fly mid-meal and get a high five for it?

Our typical Thanksgiving holiday involves traveling to either of our family's homes which are both three hours away in opposite directions.  A couple years, when we lived closer to one side, we managed to cram both houses into the long weekend.  Crazy, I know.  But for two eaters and lovers of family like us, we just couldn't bear to miss it.

This year is a whole 'nother story.  We're moving in a week to our new house and with so much to do before the big move we just couldn't make it up to the hub's grandparent's house.  So, for the first time ever, we are on our own for Thanksgiving.  And with only a day to plan!

Since it is just going to be us two (and a half), cooking a whole turkey and all the sides was crazy-talk.  We  bounced around ideas for our dinner like the classic backup chinese dinner, but I just couldn't go without my candied yams & buckets of gravy.  And then it hit me!  A lazy man's carb-loaded thanksgiving dinner with combination homemade and storebought items to keep it simple and keep us traditionalists happy.  On the menu? Pre-cooked oven roasted turkey breast from Costco, yummy & preservative-full Stove Top stuffing, homemade mashed potatoes with jarred turkey gravy, homemade candied yams, peas, dinner rolls, homemade cranberry sauce, storebought pumpkin pie and the hub's family tradition, frog eye salad.  A perfect compromise. I can't wait to dive in!

And as for the table decorations?  All things I had on-hand aside from the flowers and pumpkin.  Thankfully, (ha) I LOVE orange, so there were plenty of items to choose from.

So, who's at your table?  Any special food traditions?