A Less Traditional Thanksgiving

I'm all for big Thanksgiving celebrations.  I think the critical mass is about 10 adults, which ensures a good mixture of sides and desserts, fun conversation, and enough people to play games (of the board or ball variety). 

But with David gone all last week and Luke still recovering from that (he's had a pretty short fuse recently), we decided on a stay-at-home Thanksgiving.  Both my brother and sister worked, so we're planning to have our traditional meal on Saturday.  With that in mind, we definitely deviated from the normal menu.

We enjoyed some delicious pumpkin bread pudding for breakfast, then headed out for a hike at a local open space.  It was a gorgeous day, and I think a morning hike will be part of our traditional menu in the future.  Leftovers for lunch, then David took the kids out to play in the leaves while I worked on some custom knitting orders. 

Here's where we totally deviated--David's not a huge fan of turkey.  I know, I know.  A minor flaw in an otherwise practically perfect guy.  So we had rouladen, which is his favorite meal.  You pound out a slice of beef really thin, spread it with mustard, then roll it up with a sauteed bacon/onion mixture and a pickle.  Brown it on the stove, then into the oven with some shredded carrots and more onions.  It's really delicious.  And we still had mashed potatoes and gravy!  The highlight of the evening for Katie and Luke was the sparkling cranberry juice I bought along with some plastic flute glasses.  

We also rescheduled our Thanksgiving acrostic for Sunday morning, when everyone in my family can do it (courtesy of skype, of course).  So you'll have to stay tuned to see what I'm most thankful for this year.  :)