Homegrown (mostly) Thanksgiving

We had a wonderfully warm and cozy Thanksgiving today.  Our original plan for the next few days changed.  We were going to meet my cousins Margaret and Therese and their families on the Oregon coast.  But, my new knee isn't quite up for travel.  And, sadly, Margaret and Rob's dear elderly neighbor passed away somewhat unexpectedly Tuesday morning, and Therese and Dave decided that they needed to be home with Margaret and Rob and Anthony.

So, we all changed gears, ministered to those that we needed to minister to, and despite the loss of Robbie for Margaret and Rob and Anthony, we all had a reflective and grateful day.

Holidays are challenging when dearly loved members of your family have passed.  This is deeply poignant for Margaret and Rob this year, and we are missing my dad.  But, we know that those that precede us in death, are never really very far away.  And that was especially true today.

Alicia hosted Reynald and me and my mom at her house.  Reynald did the turkey, because that's kind of his thing, but Alicia did all the rest.  She set a beautiful table and laid a feast that was colorful and scrumptious and largely from her garden!

A few images of our dinner.

When mom and dad were first married, they had this pattern for their dishes.  Over the years, many pieces had gotten broken or given away.  When Alicia was a very young girl she fell in love with this pattern and set to work collecting.  They set such a pretty table today.

Scattered around her house are decorations of fall.  My dad made this buffet a few years ago, that now sits in Alicia's dining room.  

More fall decor.

Eager to fill our plates!

The buffet table.

Turkey, mashed potatoes (from Alicia's garden) and gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce.

Roasted carrots and parsnips from Alicia's garden and a delicious kale salad.  She harvested the kale yesterday.

And this is a delicata squash salad (squash from Alicia's garden) with goat cheese, pine nuts, and raisins.  I could have eaten this whole bowl!

We had to keep a close eye on Charlie, whose nose is table high and thought that everything smelled so good!

I haven't had much appetite since I got my new knee, but everything looked and smelled so good that I had to have a little bit of all the offerings.

It wasn't much of a struggle to clean my plate!

Butter Pecan pots de creme.  A new recipe that Alicia tried and definitely a keeper!