Getting ready

Today was spent mostly doing things to get ready for Thanksgiving. We are hosting and there will be 26 of us. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to be able to gather with family again. I probably don't need to tell you because many of you will be feeling the same way. It also means that for the first time in nearly two years, we will be having people other than immediate family inside our house. 

I don't know about you, but I usually use having guests over on a fairly frequent basis to be the motivation I need to clean. I'm pretty good about keeping things tidy, but that's not quite the same thing. We've spent a lot of time cleaning this week. Things look much better. 

Things for the holiday are pretty much under control. D. made nine dozen rolls yesterday. We've cooked one turkey and I have the beginnings of gravy done. The cranberries are done. Tomorrow morning I'll make two apple pies and whip the cream. Oh, and make the stuffing. I can't forget to make the stuffing. We'll also cook another turkey. Other people will be bringing other parts of the dinner. Food seems pretty under control. 

Another part of the morning will be spent sorting out how to seat 26 people. We've done it before, so I know it's possible, but it involves a lot of furniture rearranging... couches in particular because they have to go somewhere so that we have room for tables. The last time we did this and majorly rearranged the furniture, we ended up buying a new couch because some of the furniture stayed in its new place and we had an empty room. I'm a little concerned this will happen again because we have a couch or two which are on their last legs and maybe in the heat of the moment we'll decide to get rid of one because we need its spot for something else. Major furniture decisions seem to be made this way around here. 

I also spent time thinking about table settings. While D. was making rolls I was finally finishing ironing the table linen I had frozen in the freezer. I know that sounds odd, but because linen irons better when it is damp, I will sometimes freeze napkins or a tablecloth if I don't have time to iron it right then. The trouble is that once it is in the freezer, I completely forget about it. I really wanted to take care of the poor frozen and neglected table linens before adding to them. Today I rummaged around and found all my Thanksgiving centerpiece items and have those set out. To add to those, G., L., and I tried an experiment this morning.

I gathered some oak leaves that still had some color (they have more color than the photograph actually shows) and we coated them in beeswax. It is supposed to help the leaves retain their color. We'll see. Even if they don't last, they'll still look nice added to the table. 

It feels good to be doing normal holiday type things. Even the cleaning. And for that I am very, very thankful.