This or That: Thanksgiving Edition

 I'm getting pretty excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow!  I have all the food prepped and ready to go.  I was going to share my Thanksgiving favorites but really that's mostly just our menu sine I cook and mainly just cook my favorites.  We keep it real simple in our family and don't have the dozens or so dishes that everyone else seems to prepare. 

I saw this cute little This or That Thanksgiving Edition and thought it would make a perfect blog post for today. 

As always I started with the original... 


And here's one with my answers. 



I honestly don't know anyone that makes ham for Thanksgiving... ham tends to be either a Christmas or an Easter thing up here (though I do see ham in the stores so I know people must have them).  We have always made a turkey in our family and just a turkey with lots of side dishes (that may or may not change through the years). 

We really eat around 2 so between lunch and dinner but we treat it as a late lunch. We tend to eat a later breakfast as well so it works for us; plus that way I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn and immediately start cooking.  We then eat our desserts around 5 or 6 and treat that like dinner. Plus if anyone is hungry they can pick at the leftovers.

Though we call it stuffing (as you can see in My Favorite Stuffing Recipe post) ; we don't actually stuff the birds so I guess technically it's dressing. 


I picked dress up... but it's more like we're dressed up for our family. We typically wear jeans or nice pants and sweaters.  Nothing super fancy but no one has stains or holes or is wearing pj's... which seems like it's saying a lot for us. 

This is the outfit I plan on wearing this year.

No one (but me!) eats sweet potatoes in this house so we always make mashed potatoes.  I follow this same recipe each year and it's based off the one my mom made for holidays growing up.  My husband used to request her potatoes so I knew I had to learn to make them myself.  I'm happy to report he loves them and my mom gets a break from peeling potatoes now.


We don't typically have our TV on at all during the day but after we're done eating and while we're waiting for snack we start our Christmas season off by watching Elf and snuggling up in front of the fire so I picked movies. 


I have never shopped black Friday sales and don't ever plan on it either; I avoid crowds and do the bulk of my shopping on-line.  Even though I usually have the bulk of my shopping done by Cyber Monday I do tend to scroll through and check out the deals.

Pecan pie all the way! My recipe for Chocolate Chip Pean pie is my favorite.  In fact, this year we're not even going to have a pumpkin pie or any sort of pumpkin anything for dessert.  


Linking up with:









Comments

  1. I so need that pie in my life- I want a piece today! Happy Thanksgiving Joanne XO

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  2. I hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving. I think I would choose the same as you apart from I would go for stuffing. It's one of my favourite things. x

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  3. I like to have sweet and mashed potatoes! But no ham here!

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  4. We do turkey on Thanksgiving and ham on Christmas too. My favorite side is the stuffing/dressing! Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

    Jill - Doused in Pink

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    1. Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving as well, Jill.

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  5. Turkey is definitely more traditional here for Thanksgiving and ham is for Christmas. But, I'm actually making a ham tomorrow and bringing it with us to Thanksgiving dinner. The host is having turkey. I wanted to bring something substantial so I offered ham. I make a Honey Baked Ham knockoff that people seem to like quite a bit. I agree with many of your answers! The pie for sure!! Looks delicious. Someone is making a pecan chocolate chip for the meal tomorrow or else I'd make one and bring it! Have a great Thanksgiving!

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    1. I bet your host is so grateful you're bringing a ham. It sounds like you'll be with a large crowd! Enjoy!!

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  6. We only do turkey on Thanksgiving but we used to do ham on Christmas and don’t even do ham on Christmas anymore just Easter, lol! This was fun. I can’t wait for tomorrow happy Thanksgiving my friend!

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    1. We don't cook ham on Christmas anymore either!

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  7. I'm with you, Joanne—eat around two, dress casually but "nice," and keep the TV off until after! PS I just sent you an email through your contact form because you are one of the two winners of my giveaway (yay!).

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    1. Oh wow; thank you! I'll go look for that email right now.

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  8. That's so funny, because last year we had ham for Tday for the first time. But usually it's turkey for us.
    XOXO
    Jodie
    www.jtouchofstyle.com

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  9. You made me laugh with your dress code! Have a great Thanksgiving!

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  10. It's usually at my middle daughter's house and she makes a turkey and a ham, because our blended family is just big (and her 5 teenagers are also BIG ~ the 3 boys are well over 6' and even my 15-yr-old granddaughter is 5"9"!). We also have mashed potatoes, plus the men seem to love those silly sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top too (the women scrape the marshmallows off). Living near Dallas, we gather about 11:30 for appetizers and to visit with the grandkids (also our best friends are daughter's in-laws, and my ex & his wife are there, and they're good friends too). Then we eat about 1 pm, so we're done in time to watch the Cowboys' football game .... and it's time for "2nd dinner" afterwards ~ when we play "Left, Right, Center" (a dice card game that the grandkids love). Ok.... I'm off to go tend to the18 eggs I have boiling for deviled eggs. (already finished the Chocolate Cream Pie ~ brownies, 4 kinds of cookies ~ Brandied Cranberry Relish ~ and will do veggie platter plus green Pico de Gallo in the morning)

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    1. That sounds like my boys! I have a bunch of giants over here too. It sounds like a very delicious day. I hope you have a wonderful time with your family.

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  11. I am with you on all of your responses to this! Enjoy the Thanksgiving week!

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  12. I have never tasted pecan pie! I don't want to because I don't want to discover I love it!

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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  13. Hi Joanne - we don't have Thanksgiving in Australia (I wish we'd adopted it instead of Halloween!!) Your outfit looks great and it sounds like a fun , relaxing way to spend a holiday together as a family - and I'll be avoiding the Black Friday sales too (something else that's creeping over into Australia....)

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    1. I (personally) think Thanksgiving it a lot more fun than Halloween! LOL.

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  14. The pecan pie looks so delicious! My mouth is watering. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Joanne xx
    Ruth@playworkeatrepeat

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  15. It sounds so cozy how you kick off the Christmas season with the Elf movie! Your Thanksgiving overall sounds very nice and relaxed. The pie looks wonderful!

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  16. Happy Thanksgiving Joanne I hope you and your family have a lovely day. My choice of food would be exactly the same as yours and now I fancy some Pecan Pie! :)

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  17. That was so good getting a glimpse of your life at Thanksgiving. It's a US-based custom but some in Australia celebate. We have, for better or worse, added Black Friday to our retail places...Loved the photo of you too, very autumnal!! Thank you for sharing your post for Wednesday’s Words and Pics. It is great to have you be a part of this blogging community each week. Denyse.

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  18. I am not a turkey person 😬 so I had my obligatory three bites and lots of sides, haha! That tends to be how I navigate Thanksgiving dinner--stuffing is basically my main course. 🤣 I have been loving Elf this holiday season. Not that I disliked it before, but it has been an especially good comfort watch this year.

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    1. I definitely find that turkey takes up the least amount of space on my plate Thanksgiving day!

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  19. We've always done just turkey but this year my daughter made a small ham too as her husband's family always had both. I am not a Black Friday shopper either. I have never understood the appeal. We watched White Christmas last week and that's one of my favorites. Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!

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    1. I have never watched White Christmas and each Christmas I promise myself I'm going to watch it!

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  20. The pecan pie looks amazing!
    xoxo
    Lovely
    www.mynameislovely.com

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    1. I just love that added and rather unexpected bit of chocolate in each bite! YUM

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  21. We always have turkey and ham at Thanksgiving because we have such a huge gathering of people, and I always eat the ham! I never eat turkey when there's yummy ham around! Haha.

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    1. We buy a ham when they go on sale for Thanksgiving but I cook it in December... we're actually planning to cook the ham this weekend.

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