Have you been knitting (more on that below), or getting ready for Thanksgiving? Or wondering how the heck you'll do it, with babies and toddlers and, well, babies?
I'm re-upping my comprehensive guide, No, Really, THIS is How You Get Ready for Thanksgiving. I'm giving you ample time to buy dress shoes, strategize about your monkeys helpers, and otherwise get yourself in gear.
Right now, the only decorations my house has are left over from the end of October, when Bridget and her fiddling friend from college, Maire, strung leaves for me.
{Fun fact: our 5600 sq. ft. house was moved a few miles at some point at the turn of the last century, and the only real damage sustained, including among the 6 marble fireplaces, was this crack, visible here. According to a previous owner, at least… }
I can't even post about the gathering we had, because we were so busy we didn't take any pictures. It was a “house concert” with fiddling and singing — and a pie party!
Everyone brought a pie, savory or sweet. When Deirdre's neighborhood in Manchester does this, they have a competition, which she has won twice! They've only had the party for two years! Deirdre is killing it, pie-wise.
We had a lot going on already with the concert, so we didn't do that, but everything was amazingly tasty and a winner in my book.
I can't recommend this kind of gathering enough. The hostess doesn't do too much (I made two savory pies and one sweet, and set out the drinks and paper goods for about 50 people). And who doesn't love pie!?
Bridget has fiddled herself into a fine place, I am bursting with pride to say, and having Maire land in her vicinity is a real Godsend — they play together like two fiddling angels. With another friend on guitar, they gave us a good number of tunes; and then everyone had dessert and joined in the music-making in the session.
I've been knitting another owl baby vest instead of getting ahead on cooking (although I do have a huge butternut squash cooked up and in the freezer — one dish down, fifteen or so to go!).
I highly recommend this little book, Meditations Before Mass, from Romano Guardini, author of our first Spirit of the Liturgy book club reading. Many of the ideas about the liturgy are developed in this book more as meditations for the person who hopes to delve deeper into the mystery of worship on a personal level. Many gems to contemplate here, and real help when it seems like much of what passes for spiritual reading today is more on the sentimental side.
Well, I better get myself up and cooking, myself. Thanksgiving is so close! How does this happen every year! Someone rescue Auntie Leila from terminal procrastination.
Next week I will round up my Advent posts for you. Shorter Auntie Leila: Advent wreath with candles you remembered to buy now (take that, procrastination!), maybe an Advent calendar, stay close to the Liturgy — and you will be good.
Happy to join Ginny at Small Things for the Yarn Along!
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Dixie says
We used to have pie-and-music parties before we had little ones with an early bedtime! They are the best!! I can’t wait to do them again in a few years.
BridgetAnn says
Wait, your house HAS BEEN MOVED?!?! I mean, I know the Flyte family had had their family home moved but as much as I adore Brideshead, it is a fictional home 😉 Very cool.
BridgetAnn says
And I second the Guardini recommendation. Each meditation is short enough to be do-able. (It is a collection of a series of talks actually given prior to Mass, yes?)
Meg says
You should put up a video of Bridget fiddling for us to hear!
Amy says
Thank you for the link to your Thanksgiving Day Prep. I came to your blog tonight looking for exactly that! I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner, but I just remembered my stove or our electric box is on the fritz and I’m not able to use the burners at the same time as the oven without blowing a fuse. It’s not likely it will be fixed within a week. And I don’t know why, but I always forget that I am still going to have to keep up with laundry and regular meals and school and leaf raking, etc. on top of doing the holiday meal, and I’m chuckling but feeling a bit panicky. lol, I know it can all be done, i just need to plan and work ahead. I remembered reading your t-day planning post and came here to search for it.
Your party sounds wonderful, what a great idea!
Thanks again,
Amy
Logan says
I just hunted down your Thanksgiving post the other day to get me rolling on prep. and so far the week feels like it’s going in a positive direction. I actually implement your ideas pretty much like a manual regardless of whether you actually meant people to do that or not. It saves me the stress and anxiety of having to decide (fellow commitment phobic here) what to do first. Yesterday I got all the upstairs cleaned (four hours!!) and I feel so much more calm. I can see what needs to be done now in terms of food because you are so right about that sinking feeling of having too much to do! Now I can let the infinite toddlers dance away on the dishwasher door without setting off the trombones in my head (wait, I think that’s mixing Auntie Leila metaphors…).
I’m all about the owlly patterns! I have a really similar one and I used it to make a little sweater dress and baby bunting. Very cute.
Leila says
Haha, Logan, YES! DO WHAT I TELL YOU hahaha
Seriously, part of me always wants to have the disclaimer “or just try to figure it out given your own circumstances” and then part of me is “WHY DON’T YOU LISTEN” — haha
Are you on Ravelry so I can see these owly things?
Logan says
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/robertdeniro/the-zoe-3-in-1-dress-romper-tunic-pattern
I don’t know if that’ll link to it so the user name is “robertdeniro” –um, I’m not Robert Deniro btw. “Owly Cable Dress” is the project name.
The pattern is linked there, and to make the sleep sack I just took the dress pattern and knit the sleeves long, the skirt really long, and added a eyelet border to the hem for threading a ribbon through the bottom to close it.
The owls look extremely similar to what you are knitting.
Leila says
Wow, so cute!! Thanks!
That’s a brilliant idea for the sleep sack!!
Karyn says
Auntie Leila, 🙂 You Rock! Everytime!
Can Do, Practical, Straightforward, Effective and Efficient, and most importantly filled with Love. Your website does so much for the restoration of the dignity in motherhood. (Maybe that should be fatherhood too.)
What really struck home: “But it’s your duty now to schedule in – rather than be in denial about – the need to sit down and nurse the baby.” (just ‘sit down’, gosh that can be hard to do when there is a clamouring and lists to be ticked off, but this is the Number 1 ).
Then Auntie Leila your suggestion to keep the dishes plain and simple with one “memorably interesting” – bit like making a quilt really 🙂 🙂 and BUTTER, “Put butter on it and it will be lovely” – couldn’t be any simpler!
Thank you for so generously sharing your time and experience – just wish you had been ‘there’ 40 years ago! Ah, but would I have been open to ‘listening’ then? 🙂 🙂 !!
Cheers, and Happy Thanksgiving to all who you love and all who love you – from the otherside of the world and way down south where the Southern Ocean meets the Pacific. 🙂
Leila says
Thank you, Karyn! I really appreciate all these kind words!
Jenny says
Auntie Leila, you’ve been on my mind the past week or so. Due to a family emergency, the whole of Thanksgiving fell in my lap. After a sleepless night wondering how it would all get done with a teething toddler who is wanting to drop a nap and a schedule that has gone off track, I thought of you and knew I could do it. Thank you for your advice over the years! With a lot of creative hard work, everything came together nicely, and my mother’s plans changed and at the last minute she was able to help out a bit, too. I can’t remember a nicer Thanksgiving since having children. I also cannot remember the last time I was really looking forward to a calm, peaceful Advent. I’ve always enjoyed the Advent season, but this year, my bones are crying out for it.
Thank you, again, for your reassuring presence!
Leila says
Thank you for reading all these years, Jenny!