Our Sweet Thanksgiving Traditions
I honestly can't believe that we're about a week away from Thanksgiving! I feel like I'm just settling into November and here we are just rolling through it. Thanksgiving has become one of my top favorite holidays over the last several years. It's been a laid back, sweet day filled with simple traditions and loving on the people around me. We haven't really had set thanksgiving plans for many years so we've always just gone with the flow and things changed from year to year. The year we got married we started a new tradition for our family and we set the Christmas tree up Thanksgiving night! This is our fifth Thanksgiving to carry on that sweet tradition and it'll be so much fun to have both our sweet babies around this year! Last year we started a new tradition to go along with that and Campbell got his first Christmas gift that night, a pair of Christmas pajamas and a Christmas book. We will do that again this year and add Crawford girl in on the fun! It makes me so excited to think about doing this for the years to come as these babies get bigger and we had a few more Cole kiddies to the mix.
A big reason why we've loved Thanksgiving so much over the past couple of years is the fact that we are now the official turkey cooks of the holiday! Ha! My friend Victoria encouraged me to use her Williams Sonoma turkey recipe a few years ago AND WE HAVEN'T LOOKED BACK! It's genuinely the best turkey I've ever had and I don't feel guilty about saying that because it's not my recipe and we literally just follow directions! Ha! It's so much fun for Tyler and I to do this together and we love having a beautiful turkey to serve to friends and family when it's all said and done! You can find Victoria's turkey instructions here and her whole Thanksgiving series here! Besides the turkey, I'm not 100% sure what else I'll be making (obviously we don't plan far ahead around here!) but I'm considering my friend Andrea's pecan pie because it is TO DIE FOR. You can view some of her yummy fall recipes that are perfect for Thanksgiving here! (Also, I'm SO EXCITED for her cookbook to come out next spring. Can't wait to share more about this in the months to come!)
Our Thanksgiving guest list is usually a random assortment of friends and family who need someone to celebrate and I love having people in our home. It's one of my most favorite days to host and just enjoy a fun meal with friends and family! This year I think we're going to set up a few tables family style in our backyard and have a mid-afternoon dinner before the sun goes down. I haven't done much to plan yet (I think I need to get on this TODAY) but I'm excited to make it a sweet, cozy space for us to all enjoy!
Do you have any fun Thanksgiving traditions you're carrying on this year or tried and true recipes you love? This last minute planning gal could use some inspiration!
