14 Tips For Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner.

A few tips if you have the honor of hosting Thanksgiving this year:

1. Take the time to plan your menu. A good menu before you go shopping keeps you from running back out to the stores before they close Thanksgiving night.
2. Make sure to add to your shopping list extra eggs, butter, flour, sugar, and anything else you may need for baking.
3. The average Thanksgiving meal for 10  costs around $45. (According to CNBC for 2009)
4. Plan your time too. How long does each dish take to make?
   
5. Do as much as you can the day before, or if you work, two evenings before. Many things such as pies, breads, vegetables, stuffing, will keep just fine in the fridge for two days and then only need reheated on Thanksgiving. This allows you to relax and enjoy your company on the holiday.
6. Ask your visitors to bring a special dish. This cuts down on your work, saves money, and adds to the conversation. And visitors usually love to bring a dish.
7. Thaw that Turkey! The general rule for thawing in the refrigerator is 1 day for every 5 pounds. So a 10 pound turkey should be put in the fridge 2 days in advance. A 25 pound Turkey should be put in 5 days in advance. And if your are brining the Turkey it will need to be even earlier. 
8. Turkeys are wonderful brined.
9. Have Thanksgiving just before your regular dinner time instead of noon or 2pm. This gives you the time you need to prepare a feast but still allows enough time to clean up afterwards.
10.  Make sure you have something to cook the turkey in and a serving platter. 
11. Think about decorations. Does the table cloth need ironed? Do you have a centerpiece? Candles?
12. Buy or make ice.
13. Have something for children to do. A small craft, board games, movies (like Charlie Brown Thanksgiving or Pollyanna)
14. Keep your Thanksgiving menu and recipes from year to year. 

Interesting Thanksgiving Turkey Recipes

Browsing around for new delicious turkey recipe ideas I came across some delicious, amazing, and even silly turkey ideas from wonderful blogs!

California turkey and vino

 A suntanned turkey (sillyness!)

Caribbean style turkey 

Thanksgiving turkey and bacon flavored gravy 

Cider braised turkey and garlicky creamed spinach

Thanksgiving chili tequila apricot glazed turkey 

Smoky Paprika-Bacon Roasted Turkey

& 

A whole blog devoted to turkey recipes!

Click each to see more about them.

Pop-Up School Valentines

A fun tradition. We started doing this at the request of my oldest son who wanted homemade cards to take to school on Valentines day. This cute little pop-up card is made using scrap book paper, some thick paper, ribbon, and glue. Because it is made up of scraps it lends well to adaptations.

First start with a 2.5 inch by 5 inch piece of card stock, or other thick paper, even a thin bit of cardboard will work. Fold it in half.

On the folded edge make two 1 inch cuts.

Open the paper and fold in the middle section in to create a "stand".

And then close again to crease the folds.

Add a scrap of paper to the outside to hide the hole from the stand.

Add the word Valentine with a black pen. Use all caps and add dots to all of ends. Mark out your word with pencil first.

Cut a heart. About 1.5 inch by 1.5 inch.

Glue the heart to the stand. Make sure the point of the heart is above the bottom crease for the stand.

Add ribbon, or twine etc. by loosely tying it around both the heart and the stand.

Add a personal message above and below the heart

such as:

Happy Valentines Day (above),

and With love from... (below).

Punch a small hole in the bottom of the card and add ribbon to tie it shut.

My boys chose more masculine colors for their cards and they did not perfectly cut out or glue on anything, but that is part of the charm of these little cards. And the time spent making them also makes joyful memories. :)