I absolutely love Thanksgiving, I always say that the last half of the year is amazing because not only is it my birthday, but it also involves Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Christmas! Christmas is my all time favourite, but Thanksgiving holds a close second in my heart because (and not to be too cheesy) it truly makes you think about everything you are thankful for. Now of course I try to be thankful daily because there will always be something to be thankful for, but I just love that there is literally a day of thanks.
Now I know what you are thinking, "Thanksgiving happened like two days ago, why are we talking about this still?". And yes it is technically over, but I thought I would share some pictures of food inspo (we do the same types of dishes for Christmas and Easter so if you want to use these for Christmas by all means!) and also share what I am thankful for.
No matter what the chaos in your life is like, there will always be something to be thankful for. Just to list a few obvious ones for me, I am thankful for my family, my friends, my boyfriend, my church, a free country like Canada to live in, my health, food in my belly, warm clothes, and a warm house to live in. However being thankful for something does not always mean it has to be huge in your life; it could be something simple that just makes your day go by smoother or better.
Some examples for me can be:
-My water bottle that I am able to carry around with me at all times
-My favourite throw blanket that is fuzzy on one side and keeps me a little cozier at night
-The two beautiful bouquets of flowers that my friends brought for Thanksgiving that give me something to admire when I am relaxing
-The Office and Friends (TV shows you must watch if you have not, they are on Netflix) that, either when I'm bored or feeling a little under the weather, will always make me laugh
-The snow! Yes I am thankful for snow, it's beautiful to look at and means that the Christmas season is fast approaching
Those are just to name a few, but you get the gist. If you find yourself in a funk of negativity or anger or sadness, just remember that even if some of the more bigger/obvious things to be thankful for are either missing or lacking, there will always be something in your life that brings you joy and makes you thankful.
Now onto the food pictures! The second part of Thanksgiving that I love is the food, and being able to gather around with loved ones to eat said amazing food. This year was no exception! The food that was prepared was phenomenal (hats off to the chef).
To start it off, we are usually too impatient to actually wait for the main meal, so we snack on some punch (sprite, cranberry juice, and orange juice), cheese and crackers, candied nuts and chocolate macaroons, nachos with salsa, and of course to be healthy we had a veg plate and a fruit plate (not pictured).
This is one of my favourites: candied yams. If you have never had candied yams before, you need to! You'd think sweetness with a starch would be weird, but yams are naturally sweeter than potatoes so it tastes amazing. How we make it is we just slice up a few yams and throw them into an oiled casserole dish, than put a little bit of butter, brown sugar, and some marshmallows on top and throw it in the oven. By the time it is cooked everything will have seeped down into the layers of yams and you can add a little sweetness to your plate.
We of course have salad because the usual meal can feel quite heavy on the stomach, so it is nice to add some freshness to your plate and also add some greens into your diet. My favourite dressing for salad is actually just some olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon to add some zest.
Now I did not grab photos of the actual meat that we ate, partially because I forgot but also because I know some people don't like seeing pictures of that, so I'll just quickly describe it and then show you a little bit of our decor.
We of course had regular turkey, which we also made stuffing to go along with it. We only grabbed like a small-medium turkey though, since we had a couple more meat alternatives and didn't want a massive turkey.
And then either last year or the year before we started making lamb and duck as well. With the lamb we top it off with some rosemary stems, and the duck is usually topped with garlic and mandarin oranges (sounds very weird, but it works).
For our table we just set it normally, added some red and white wine, and we also had apple cider if anyone was driving and wanted to be safe but also wanted a variety other than water. If you look close enough there are also two cute decor pieces from Michaels back from a couple years ago. I don't think they have had them in stock since then, but they are both centred around the colour theme of a grey/light blue with dark grey and cream accents; they just added a cute little fall touch to the day.
We of course also had mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, and a veggie casserole to tie the whole dinner together, but that is about it for what Thanksgiving looks like in my household!
If you ever try or have tried any of the dishes that I mentioned here, leave a comment on what you think of them! I definitely strongly recommend the candied yams though if you do try anything.
Have a great week, and I will talk to you all next time!
Xoxo,
Callista