Thanksgiving

I am looking forward to this Thanksgiving because I will be with my family and dear friends. But I am also anxious- about hosting a huge meal, providing the right atmosphere, and getting the details right. I want everyone to feel comfortable and relaxed, not overworked or stressed- including myself. How can I help to make it a great day for everyone and also retain my own contentment?

In order to set this day apart, I will treat it as a Sabbath… no unkind words, no rushing, no work that isn’t thankful work. It’s easy to go on automatic pilot, making pies and turkey with great busyness and efficiency; I choose instead to stay present, notice everything as if in slow motion, and pause often to observe what I am thankful for in this moment.

Take a deep breath and feel deep gratitude for what I have, for the abundance of having a home, a family and friends. Be thankful for the things I usually take for granted. Gratitude is an important part of being.

Agenda:
1. Thanksgiving Meditation:
I’m cooking a 15 lb. turkey this year, so it needs to go in the oven by 8 a.m. I will definitely be the first person awake in my house! In order to start the morning right, I plan to begin giving thanks before I get out of bed, and just stay in a thanksgiving meditation as long as I can...

I give thanks for my warm bed, for my slippers, my dog, my sleeping family, my clean kitchen, and my morning cup of coffee.

I give thanks for this lovely bird, which will feed us so well, for the pies on the table, and the abundance of food in the refrigerator.

2. Cook the Turkey:
Pretty basic plan: I will warm it to room temperature, rinse it off, pat it dry, stuff some fresh rosemary and thyme inside, and baste it with melted butter. I'm making the stuffing separately this year, with the giblets cooked in chicken stock.

3. Play (or watch) basketball:
My family plans to play ball together this morning... I plan to let them.

4. Give thanks:
Thankfulness is a powerful and transforming emotion. I hope to take time to feel each nuance of the day, to feel gratitude for each person present, and for each dish offered; and give thanks for the food, all the way back to its source and all who handled it on the way to our table.

I hope to take the time to connect deeply with the people I am with and appreciate each person’s uniqueness, and I challenge myself to find out something new about every person.


5. Play a table talk game:
I decided to play a game this year to get some interesting conversation going... I found the questions here and modified them for our group. I think it went pretty well, considering how shy most of us are! I learned a few things I didn't know.

• What are your hobbies?
• Do you have any good parenting advise?
• How are you like your parents? How are you different?
• What was the best job you ever had? The worst?
• Is there one person who has had a big impact on your life? Why?
• Who makes you laugh the hardest? Why?
• What is your favorite book? Why?
• What is your favorite movie? Why?
• What was the best trip you ever took? Why?
• If you could go somewhere you’ve never been, where would you go?
• What are two things you couldn’t live without?
• What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done?
• What do you consider to be your strongest character traits?
• What habits do you wish you didn’t have?
• What do you consider to be the biggest world events of your lifetime?
• What do you hope to be remembered for?

Before Thanksgiving

We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year, and I have so much to do!

Agenda:
1. Journal:
My theme this month has been abundance (which you would know if I had managed to post on the full moon). My goal has been to focus my attention on what I really want for myself and for others in my life, and to remember that I am filled with an abundance of blessings each day. I also added a goal to create something each day (bake bread, work on a gift, write a blog entry, and so on), which has been fun and fulfilling!
 
I made my own little Abundance Journal, with four sections:

1. Morning: Expand my Vision- 

• What do I want for myself & others?
• Morning mantra.

2. Noon: Abundance Prompts- Ask myself:

• What am I thankful for in this moment?
• How am I living my vision?

3. Afternoon: Create Something-

4. Evening: Abundance Journal-

• What filled me with light?
• How is the world fuller?

After writing in this journal for the last three weeks, I feel profoundly grateful for my life, and well prepared for Thanksgiving. (I'm already planning a journal page something like it for Advent, perhaps on the theme of generosity and kindness.)

2. Divide up the cooking:

Everyone in my family has a Thanksgiving specialty- Wade makes rolls, my son makes cranberry sauce, and my daughter makes lemon meringue pie. I make the turkey, the stuffing, the gravy, and the pumpkin pies (at least two, because we need one for breakfast on Friday). Our friends who are joining us will fill in the potatoes, yams, and etc.

3. Cook the pumpkins:
The secret to good pumpkin pie is to use fresh pumpkin. We harvested only four small pie pumpkins this year- all from the volunteers that I found happily growing in my compost pile. (I moved them to the garden with a shovel, and they did fine, but the harvest was small.)

Ready for the oven.

I cook the pumpkins several days early, to see how much I get. After chopping and cleaning the pumpkins, I baked them at 350ºF until they were soft. Then I scooped them out of the skins and put the pumpkin in a container in the refrigerator for later. I got 7 cups, almost enough for two large pies, so I'll need to buy one more pumpkin.

4. Shopping:

• turkey
• bread, celery, and chicken stock for stuffing
• pumpkins and whipped cream
• beer and cider

We got a 15 lbs. bird- for 8 people; that's more then we need, but we have some big eaters, and I want leftovers!

5. Clean House:
Especially clean out the refrigerator!

6. Plan some fun activities:
No one comes to my house without expecting an activity or two...

One idea I have is a table talk game where we pass a bowl of questions around the table to stimulate some interesting conversation. I found the questions here and modified them for our group. We will have 16 questions (2 each), and some rules to make it easier for the shy people in our party: After you read your question you can pass it on to anyone else who offers to answer it, but you do have to choose one question to answer eventually. The second question is optional.

7. Make the pies:

My pumpkin pie recipe-

Ingredients:

• 4 c. pumpkin
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. each ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg

Makes one large pie-

1- Make the pastry and line the pie plate. Preheat the oven to 450ºF.

2- Put half of the pumpkin and half of the milk in the blender with one egg and blend until pureed.

3- Pour into a mixer bowl, and repeat with the second batch.

This is enough for two pies.

4- Add sugar, salt, and spices to the mixer bowl and mix on low, then pour into pie shell.

5- Bake at 450ºF for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 375ºF and bake for 45 minutes.

Day of the Dead

The Day of the Dead- Dia de los Muertos- is a holiday observed in Mexico on November 2. It’s a family time for remembering and honoring dead friends and relatives- a period when the souls of the dead can return for a visit. It’s celebrated with humor, not sadness.

Agenda:
1. Set up my ofrenda:
Families begin to prepare for the Days of the Dead in mid-October. The heart of the festival is the ofrenda, a special table with offerings and decorations. The ofrenda is decorated with arches, candles, incense, skeleton toys, and marigolds. The family also displays some of the dead person’s favorite foods and things, photographs, sugar skulls, and little gifts. 

I've been collecting and making things for my ofrenda for years, but only put up a small ofrenda this year.

2. Make papel picado (paper banners):
The ofrenda needs delicate cut paper banners on the front edge, on the wall behind, and on the ceiling overhead. Mexican artists cut through about 30 pieces of tissue paper at once. They pin the sheets to the table, draw the design on the top sheet and then cut with special stamping tools. We have an easier method.

3. Make sugar skulls:

Candy makers in Mexico sell thousands of alfiñique before the Days of the Dead. They form the skulls by pressing white almond paste into a mold, then they pipe pastel icing onto the candy, and decorate the eyes and mouth with bits of shiny paper or foil. Sometimes they write a name on the forehead.