Thanksgiving 2020

Editor’s Note: Post contains video. Watch at website for best experience.

Thanksgiving began weeks before the Thursday meal.

Mom and Monkey have the most experience making the rolls we all enjoy, so they got those made and frozen well before Thanksgiving.

Yessa and I tested a vegan recipe the week before to see if we thought we’d like to have “vegan ham” for Thanksgiving.

It was good…and interesting.

We’d make it again, but we didn’t feel like we needed to have it on Turkey Day.

Pies and desserts were made the day before or the morning of.

Monkey requested an old-fashioned “Pumpion” Pie, so we tried that out.

It included squash and apples. We substituted butternut squash for pumpkin, and that worked out great.

We’ve gotten Babs addicted to “The Great British Bake Off” with us, and she wanted to try her hand at hot water crust.

Delicious apple pie ensued.

I tried my hand at a pumpkin cheese cake.

Then, of course, regular pumpkin pie.

This was our first year with non-meat-eaters in the family so we had multiple gravies, assorted stuffings, corn, carrot-raisin salad, roasted green beans, cranberry sauce, and though I carved up the turkey before roasting it, Buds took care of the actual cooking.

The sausage stuffing was a special hit.

It was truly the best Thanksgiving meal we’ve ever had.

I was grateful to gather around the table.

We also were blessed with a late afternoon visit with Virginia Family.

And Buds and the kids had group video game time with cousins, which was enjoyed by all.

Sitting around the table with these grown children who are such a delight to visit with…for that I am eternally thankful.

Buds made a time-lapse video of our meal.

For the true whipped cream on the pie, we had a post-Thanksgiving workout. I did something regular, but Buds hit it hard by doing the Hero WOD “Chad.”

This means he wore a backpack with 45# of weight in it, while he stepped up and down off a 20″ high box for 1000 times.

This video is toward the end of his epic undertaking. At least he was still able to smile.

It was a great, great set of days.