Traditions - old and new

Tradition: Thanksgiving dinner at Rayford's Crossing.

19 gathered around the dining room table for turkey. There was food, football, and....Sophia! She made our day. Some photos from the weekend....






Tradition: football on Thanksgiving.





The following is for Sophia and Danny:
"We're going to see Uncle Ed!"

"We're going to see UNCLE ED!"
"WE'RE GOING TO SEE UNCLE ED!!!"






We love you, Sophia!Tradition:
When the Mays cousins get together, nuttiness ensues.
Crazy cousins heading to the horse farm for a "photo shoot."

The angry model look. Ha!



Tradition:

The day after Thanksgiving we get our Christmas tree. No, we don't go to the forest to chop one down - been there before - many times. Johnson's is our spot.

New tradition:

Pumpkin bowling/smashing. Bowl the now mushy pumpkins down the hill...

and smash them against the trees. Apparently Janelle and Evelyn have done this in years past.

Back to the Christmas tree.

Ummm, I don't really know what's going on here.

We met the Ricucci's at the theater and saw "Enchanted" - great movie - and came back to the house for pizza and games.

The decorations are all up. Now all we need is snow!

: photographers for this post - Jean, Janelle, Elise, Garrett :

To brine or not to brine...

In one corner....
we have an organic, vegetarian fed, free range turkey soaking in Williams Sonoma brine.
In the other corner, the old stand-by Butterball, infused with all sorts of artificial who-knows-what.
No brine, just waiting to be cooked.
Hmmm, ten bucks says the Butterball tastes better.
My sous chef, Evelyn was concerned that the sheer weight of the pot, brine, and turkey might break the refrigerator shelf. So far it's holding. If we hear a crash in the middle of the night we'll know what's happened.
I sure do love my enormous, shiny Circulon stock pot, though. Thanks, Glynn!