The best day of the year is tomorrow, so today I’ll be doing some prep cooking and baking some Rustic Egg Bread. I get really excited about Thanksgiving, planning a great meal and having fun making dishes from scratch, setting a pretty table and enjoying the day. See my post from 2014 for lots of pictures and a bit of history on the iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and a story about the making of the movie Miracle on 34th Street.
A couple of years ago I started a Pinterest board to save pictures of the legendary parade – Thanksgiving Parade!! I wish I could share more of them on the blog, but you’ll just have to go to the link to see them. There are images pinned from before WWII, modern images, and even some from Miracle on 34th Street.
I love reading Thanksgiving stories too, and shared a number of mine on my post Thanksgiving 101. Read the comments for some fun reader’s stories too.
On another post in 2015, I shared this story, and thought newer readers might enjoy it. My husband and I were celebrating out first holiday season after we got married, and my mother and grandmother made the six hour drive to visit us for a few days. My mother, who was always up for something new, wanted to cook the turkey with a 24 hour method at a low temperature, 200 degrees. So, why not? I put mom in charge of the turkey and went to work, leaving my poor husband home to entertain the in-laws all day. Well, about four hours after she put the bird in, the oven in that old apartment burnt through the element shooting the oven temp up over 500 degrees. Luckily, someone noticed that, although to this day I still don’t know exactly what happened. A call to the apartment office, and the manager (who thankfully was still there) happened to have an empty apartment where they could use the oven. Unfortunately, when My Sweet Babboo grabbed the turkey out of our burned up oven, a tidal wave of turkey juice and grease crested over the top of the roaster and down the front of his shirt and pants. Soaking wet with hot broth, he managed to get the turkey over to the other place, and cleaned up both the kitchen and himself before I got home. I was grateful that I didn’t know about this while it was happening!! I was also grateful it occurred the day BEFORE the holiday, and not on the holiday itself when the office would have been closed. Amazingly, the turkey was delicious the next day as it was supposed to be.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll be watching parades while answering emails chatting with friends and sharing stories. We’ll enjoy a Breakfast Casserole, filling the air with a savory aroma of bacon, cheese, onions and eggs.
Later this weekend, I’ll watch Miracle on 34th Street, one tradition I enjoy every year. It is the kickoff video for Friday, as I change the decor from Thanksgiving to Christmas and put up our tree. Did you know that the actor Edmund Gwenn who plays Santa in the movie was the actual Macy’s Santa in the parade in 1946 so they could get footage for the movie?
As we enjoy this long holiday weekend, I will remember all the things I am grateful for – our health and family, my true friends, faithful readers like you, our home in the mountains, food on the table, and time to enjoy it all in safety and security in a free country. Plus jellied cranberry sauce in a can.
I wish a happy and safe holiday for each and every one of you. Happy Thanksgiving!! Can you share a story from your Thanksgiving memories?
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From My Carolina Home 
Thanks for sharing the memories. I hope you will have a wonderful time with food, family and friends.
*HAPPY THANKSGIVING* to you and thanks for all the lovely posts and photo’s you’ve shared this past year (so far). I’ve not commented for a while but I do read all your posts 🙂
Thank you, Carole, for the recipe for an easy holiday breakfast. Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving also.Traditions around here revolve around keeping things simple. This year, since there will only be my husband & mother joining me at the table, we will have stuffing with our turkey. On Friday I’ll make the mashed potatoes to enjoy with our leftovers. As for tradition, we enjoy watching the dog show every year following the parades! Of course, I’ll be stitching in between cooking & TV!
I always enjoy your tablescapes and stories. And yes, the Miracle movie is a traditional Thanksgiving event here too. I don’t know why I never noticed your Pinterest boards…..will be following soon. Enjoy your feast.
Happy Thanksgiving, Carole and family. 🦃 🍁
Like you, I watch Miracle on 34th. street, every time it’s on, and never grow tired of it. Sending wishes for a blessed and happy Thanksgiving for you and DH.
Happy Thanksgiving, Carole! My story is this year’s 19.8 inches of snow that our city and region of Colorado received over the last couple of days. We won’t be going anywhere for Thanksgiving, but I’m thankful to be home, warm and safe. Hope you have a wonderful day!
Diann, We left CO early Monday morning and just missed that snow storm. We had been visiting for a few days and it was a lucky thing our flights were scheduled to leave just before all of that snow arrived!!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family,
There are two parades I always watch, the Macys and the Rose Bowl, the rest of the day is spent on my hand crafts and being busy with all the ones I just haven’t finished. My goal this year is to finish sorting the Christmas ornaments I want to keep and giving my boys the ones they would like to have and the rest are going to friends as decorations on their gifts and the thrift stores. I also plan on working on getting all my Thanksgiving items together for next year. Our family is just going to have a bigger Christmas this year. We ate out last year for Thanksgiving and it was okay but not the same as if we had prepared the food ourselves. It is raining here this morning and it is to rain tomorrow morning so it’s a good day to stay inside.
Phyllis
Love all your table and household décor. Lovely. It sounds like you will be having an awesome day. My parents were married on Thanksgiving day one year and I was born on Thanksgiving Day the following year. So glad they didn’t name me Tom. Ha! I so enjoy your blog and wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Always love your tablesettings and blending of many talents. Have a lovely Thanksgiving Day.
Happy Thanksgiving, Carole. We celebrate our family Thanksgiving on Saturday so that our children can do their own or go to their in-laws. I hope they will be flying the balloons in the parade tomorrow. I always enjoy watching the parade on television.
Mary
Happy Thanksgiving Carole!! We are planning to push our celebration to Friday because I am trying to get over a virus. So tomorrow my daughter and I will start to cook and we will celebrate with my sister and her husband on Friday. This is also my most favorite holiday.
Quite the story about your first Thanksgiving with your DH! We’re trying your brine-the-turkey instructions this year. Hope it works! Ten people are counting on us!
I’ve never heard of the 24 hour turkey method! Hope you have a lovely holiday.
How could I have gotten to the ripe old age of ?? and I have never seen Miracle on 34th Street? I may have to find it on TV this year and see what all the love for it is about! Have a blessed Thanksgiving…we do have so much to be thankful for in this country!!
Happy Thanksgiving Carole! I loved reading your stories and they brought back so many of my own memories…one of my favorite is when dining at my brother in laws, he didn’t have a turkey platter so he set his turkey on the counter. When he started to carve it, it shot out onto the floor across the kitchen! Luckily only a few of us saw it so he picked it up like nothing happened! Have a wonderful day 🙂
Jenna
Happy Thanksgiving. I enjoyed reading about the turkey story – so nice that people noticed the oven on the fritz and even better that the apartment complex was open and let you use a different oven!
I also love Miracle on 34th Street and had no idea that the actor was the Santa in the actual parade for the movie footage! What a neat tidbit! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving!