Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving! We made the difficult, heart-wrenching, offensive, thoughtful, hopeful, helpful, safe, anguishing decision to have Thanksgiving with just our household this year. Even though we have eight family members living just ten miles away, we felt best about following the guidelines set by our local leaders to do our part to slow the spread of COVID-19. I suffered much emotional distress during the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, all from being battered about by each family member holding different opinions on pandemic winter gatherings. I love people who didn't gather. I love people who had huge gatherings. We chose not to gather. Even though I write this without intending to insert any judge-y-ness or preach-y-ness into my rhetoric, I fear it may appear to be there simply due to the flaming-ness that the topic of holiday gatherings seems to have taken on in many areas. We all deserve the space and respect to make our own choices. 

It was hard not to become hardened toward everyone who disagreed with us. It was hard not to judge others for their decisions. It was hard to make people genuinely believe that I wasn't mad at them for their decisions. It was all much easier when I was able to ignore outside opinions and focus on spending time with my husband and kids. We had a good Thanksgiving together.

Per family tradition, we began our Thanksgiving morning with the 14th Annual White Family Turkey Trot. We don't do Thanksgiving without it! It was just the five of us,, jogging/biking together as a family. No racing, no sprinting for glory, just a family exercising in the fresh frosty air together. At the last minute, I decided to attempt running on my sore ankle. I was originally just going to walk the 5k, so I figured I had nothing to lose by trying to run a little. Jeff ran with Jay, and I jogged near Rose and Amber while they biked. I managed to easy-jog the entire distance! My ankle didn't feel too bad afterwards either! It was a fun happy quality family activity.

After the turkey trot, the girls and I made rolls together. We had prepped the rest of the feast the day before, so the rolls were the final touch. We ate right when the rolls were hot and fresh, around 12:45pm. Then it was time for Christmas music and cleanup! Then, Christmas movies! Jeff and I walked a mile between each movie we watched that afternoon. We walked before and after Home Alone. I did not watch Home Alone 2 with the kids though, because there's only so much overdone slapstick I can take in one day. 

During the week leading up to Thanksgiving, the prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, invited us all to share gratitude on social media. It was during that seven days that I felt most healed from all of the churning emotions of the clash between traditional gathering and COVID restrictions. Bringing positivity and love back into social media was every bit as healing as President Nelson said it would be. I am thankful for the guidance and inspiration from a prophet. It is possible to have peace in the midst of the storm! 

Ready to TROT! We were all saying "gobble gobble gobble" when I took this picture. I love these people.

It was a very frosty morning.

The beginning. I miss running so much.

Cemetery Road 

The runners at the finish! It was Jay's second 5k run that week.

The bike girls with their hats underneath their helmets made me laugh so hard!

Tradition #2: pie first! Post-turkey trot pie is necessary.

Amber made this amazing, hilarious turkey costume at school. Kindergarten is the absolute best.

Rolling the rolls.

"Hey, is that why they're called rolls? Because we roll them?"

The feast, buffet #1: taters, turkey, and rolls.

Buffet #2, across the kitchen: gravy, bacon green beans, and homemade cranberry sauce. I forgot to make the sweet potatoes. We didn't miss them.

Let's eat!

Traditional Jay-with-turkey-leg picure.

Now, rewind to Wednesday, November 25th, when the rest of the food prep happened:

The girls helped make pumpkin cheesecake. It turned out perfectly, with the most divine gingersnap pecan crust.

Pumpkin cheesecake! 

Making sour cream apple pie!

I drained off all of the liquid before putting the apples into the pan, and the blasted pie STILL bubbled over. Also, I didn't make a bottom crust for this pie and we didn't miss it at all. In fact, I thought that this juicy pie was better without a limp ole crust to avoid, haha. The topping is a lovely brown sugar pecan streusel crumble. This pie is a Brown family classic fave.

Carving the turkey. We spatchcocked (remove the backbone and flatten the bird out so it cooks faster) the turkey again this year, but this turkey was at leas five pounds bigger than the turkeys we've spatchcocked in the past, so we kept having to put it back into the oven to cook longer. Jeff rubbed it in an entire stick of butter and sprinkled it with Herbes de Provence. The herby butter drippings made the most fragrant delicious gravy of all time! Herbed gravy! YUM. And I made the gravy with soy milk instead of cow. It was still amazing. Gravy for the win! 

I am thankful for my husband, kids, extended family, and true friends.

I am thankful that I'm an introvert, which makes pandemic life easier.

I am thankful for my warm house.

I am thankful for books, blankets, and glasses.

 I am thankful for my faith.

I am thankful for the internet.

I am thankful for my ankles.

I am thankful for packages and Christmas lights and music!