Leftovers Friday Five

This week's questions are brought to us by Singing Owl and the letters P and T, for Post-Thanksgiving!

1. Did you go elsewhere for the day, or did you have visitors at your place instead? How was it?
We went down to my mom's house, which was nice. She hosted a couple international students from the local university, so we totaled out at 6 people.

2. Main course: If it was the turkey, the whole turkey, and nothing but the turkey, was it prepared in an unusual way? Or did you throw tradition to the winds and do something different?
The turkey was pretty much straight-up turkey, though my mom found one at Whole Foods that is bred to be smaller - helpful, when we were at one point only expecting 4 people! Our dinner is usually traditional with a few twists: mashed potatoes, two kinds of stuffing (one with apples, one with something else), green beans cooked with parmesan, pine nuts, and carmelized onions (think gourmet version of green bean casserole), homemade cranberry jelly, salad with dried cranberries and honey-roasted almonds, and pumpkin pie. You can see why going to Mom's is such a good idea...

3. Other than the meal, do you have any Thanksgiving customs that you observe every year?
We mostly just hang out. Usually we watch at least part of the Lions game, and usually they lose. This year was no exception to any of that.


4. The day after Thanksgiving is considered a major Christmas shopping day by most US retailers. Do you go out bargain hunting and shop ‘till you drop, or do you stay indoors with the blinds closed? Or something in between?
We did some shopping, but Christmas shopping. More like "we have a whole day to get stuff done, lets go get some things" shopping. If you wait til mid-afternoon, the crowds aren't bad.


5. Let the HOLIDAY SEASON commence! When will your Christmas decorations go up?
Probably not for a couple weeks, until after Luke's term is over. Though, two of the nativity sets I've recently added to my collection are already on the mantle. The tree and lights and the other dozen nativities will come soon enough!