We Are Blessed

Thanksgiving week is always a big deal around The Acre. We are lucky enough to be able to cook not only a big meal, but a meal big enough for the entire family. It's a fact that's not lost on us, and we are thankful every single day for the life we live.
Family kicks off the update for this week. Denephew and Denises came out Thursday, and each one has a special request when they come out. Henry likes apple jelly, Haley likes chocolate chip cookies, and Katie likes homemade biscuits. After we ate, it was mentioned that Henry needed a hair cut. Lawman does his own hair, and lately has been cutting Pop's hair. We sat Henry down and gave him a good old fashioned trim.

Henry and Lawman loved the Mohawk look. Mom? Not so much

So long Mohawk

And here is little Haley on the cookie making

But prior to the family coming over, we had our nose to the grindstone. We are such a well oiled machine, we got everything cooked and ready over an hour before everyone arrived.
We started out the day before baking the pumpkins for the pumpkin pie and baking the sweet potatoes (fresh from our garden, sweet potatoes)

Two small pumpkins made exactly two cups of pumpkin puree

Chance to use up the really big sweet potatoes

Then we made the pies and cake. Pumpkin pie, buttermilk pie and chocolate cake with our first batch of the year of boiled custard.

We only use scratch made pie crust

Buttermilk pie we gifted to The Walters Clan

Pumpkin pie

Chocolate cake

 Cupcake's granny recipe for boiled custard

Knocked it out of the park

The morning of Thanksgiving, Lawman was up at 0500 starting the smoker. We smoked the turkey and it was a huge hit. Then we fixed the rest of the meal, home made (not the crazy granny version) mac-n-cheese. Fresh from the garden mashed potatoes, fresh from the garden corn pudding, stuffing and fresh from the chicken deviled eggs.

Macaroni, cheese sauce and gravy going all at once

Corn pudding

Smoked turkey

Christmas pickles and "half eggs" as Henry calls them

Our Kattie Grace made the center piece for the Thanksgiving table this year.

And we found a recipe that called for our strawberries. We froze a couple of bags of our strawberries this summer, this was the perfect amount.

Fraidy Mutt got all dressed up for company, and waited patiently for something to hit the floor.

And as is one of our Thanksgiving traditions, we used the turkey bones to make broth. We now have three gallons of broth, minus one quart we used for the scratch made gravy for Friday leftovers. We had two quarts left from last Thanksgiving that we used for gravy and for the stuffing.

We put a sprig of fresh from the plant rosemary in each jar before we canned it.
And the other Thanksgiving day tradition is the Christmas tree. We put the tree up and got the presents under it. We are almost done with Christmas shopping, so we can sit back and enjoy the holidays.

We heard about using home made quilts for window covers to keep the cold air out, and we did use quilts last year. But we got to thinking, those quilts were made by Lawman's grandmother, and probably wouldn't hold up to sunlight, and a hand sewn quilt is not something you want to squander on shoddy construction work by Bill Price and Timberwood Log Homes. This year we used moving blankets we found at Tractor Supply on sale. They get the job done, but we curse "Uncle Billy" every time we feel a gust of cold air blow past us.
We ended the week with wings.
K&K