Our 5th Thanksgiving

This year we had a small group for dinner, it was much more intimate and we were able to do a few things differently. With only eight for dinner, it made it much easier to serve the meal in courses.

Rather than have the usual sitting around eating appetizers and snacks while we waited for everything to complete cooking, we had a soup and salad course to begin with. My mom made a creamy pumpkin soup, topped with a dollop of sour cream. This was followed by my mixed baby field greens salad tossed lightly with a strawberry walnut vinaigrette, topped with dried cranberries, cherries, pecans and crumbled soft goat cheese.

The wine picks for the meal included my favorite, several bottles of the Hogue Riesling as well as the Bogle Petite Sirah. I never tire of the slightly sweet and crisp, not too dry Riesling, it works well with so many dishes.

In addition to the pumpkin, apple and cherry cheese pies which Mamam baked, I also made my bread pudding for dessert.

Much football was watched, lazing around had, scrabble played and another family movie night was enjoyed. We had the first snow fall of the year, just a dusting. But there was enough snow for snowballs, Steve nearly catching one by surprise as he snoozed in the recliner

And my favorite part of hosting Thanksgiving, after all the preparation and cooking out of the way. With a spotless house and a refrigerator stocked with leftovers, Mark and I will enjoy a relaxing long weekend together.

Also a note, it will take a while to get used to seeing Dad without glasses since he had his cataract surgery this month. He has enjoyed a month off of work while his eyes recover from their individual lens replacement surgeries that were two weeks apart. He only requires reading glasses now for anything close up, he has the black rimmed Clark Kent glasses look going for him when he has them on