Thanksgiving My Style

In many ways I am not a traditionalist. In some ways I am very traditional.
I tend to break rules and go outside the norm and sometimes I walk the line. Lately, though, I am just figuring my path out and deciding which road I like best.

Growing up, Thanksgiving was a holiday spent with my grandparents. My early years were spent in Arizona and my grandparents would either drive up to stay with us or we would drive down to see them. Other times we would go visit my aunt and cousins. I can remember watching my grandma cook cranberries to make her cranberry sauce in her small kitchen.
Thanksgiving was about visiting family.

As I got older, and we moved to the South, it was a holiday at home. My sister would often times come stay for the holiday with her kids, and on occasion my grandma would fly out to stay too.

I remember Thanksgiving as my dad's holiday. He loved the food and the family. I still can picture him carving up the turkey and diving into my mom's pecan pie.

I am married to a healthcare provider, which means he works most holidays. We have always had to work the Thanksgiving meal around the actual day or partake of the meal without him present. Lots of people are in the same situation. That's life.

Lately, though, I have lost my feelings of nostalgia when it comes to Thanksgiving. I read about all of my many friends cooking for days and prepping their homes for family visitors. I have come to accept that we are not that family.
We have no "set in stone" traditions. We have no foods we must eat or desserts we must make. We do not have out of town family driving in to see us.
This year we decided to keep it simple and at home. We do have a few traditions that we decided to move into Thanksgiving, and so we are starting the holiday anew.

Pajamas, food and a movie marathon.

We do movies well and we love to hang out eating and watching movies. What I usually leave as a December tradition is now a Thanksgiving one.
The kids all picked out something to eat and then we agreed to watch the Harry Potter movies. The food menu for the day includes a Chik Fil A platter, mozzarella cheese sticks, bagel bite pizzas, cheese ball and crackers, smoked cheese and summer sausages, apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake and our famous family punch.

It's not traditional by any means, but neither are we...and that's okay.

Thank you to everyone who followed me on Instagram last week while I was in Utah! I had a great time visiting my family and celebrating my nephew's marriage. It is a beautiful state and I was really in awe every time the sun would set behind the snowy mountains.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and Thanksgiving! 

That Day I Updated the Blog

Hello. My name is Sam and I have been absent for far too long.

Community theater, although a blast of a time, really put my chores and household responsibilities behind. Way behind.

 

Farm life has been the same, except for the occasional cow antic. Penny discovered a feed can had a hole in its lid. Apparently a cow could fit her head in such hole. It took a bit, but I managed to pull the lid off.  It was also discovered that duct tape will not withstand the power of a hungry cow.

 

 

The kids have discovered, again, the joys of playing card games every morning. I think the dreary. rainy weather makes everyone want to stay inside to eat popcorn and play games.

Works for me.

 

 



Again, thanks to dreary weather, we have re-discovered our love of late afternoon movies, piled up on the sofa. We actually plan to have a Harry Potter movie marathon over Thanksgiving.

We finally processed our last batch of pastured chickens. It was a cool, rainy day but we got the job done. The kids helped and that made the entire process much quicker.
We then moved all of our pullet babies to the chicken tractor so that I can keep them moved around to fresh ground all winter. The pullets should start laying in late February.

It is always a chore to process chickens, but it is a good feeling to have a freezer full going into winter.
I do expect to get some piglets within the next couple of weeks to run through the woods all winter and into the first of spring. We haven't had pigs in several months, waiting for their paddock and woods to recover. It will be nice to have some again.

The rain? Oh the rain has been almost constant here lately. When you have rain and cows, you get muck and more mucky mud.
It has been very mucky around the milking barn, despite the great drainage. Cows really pack the ground down and the water loves to pool up and cause a thick, muddy mess.
I try and remind myself that muck is better than a frozen ground. The cows don't seem to mind either...as long as they are getting a few cows treats at milking time.

So, the last couple of weeks I have been catching up on housework, chores and school. I am ready for the holidays and our movie marathon, and I hope that we can have some relaxing days around here.

If you do not follow me on Instagram, please do. I am taking a short trip and will be posting updates through my instagram. My name is BAREFOOTFARM. 

Until next time.....

Have an awesome week!