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THE HAPPIEST OF THANKSGIVINGS TO YOU

November 26, 2014

It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S. tomorrow so a lot of people are running around like chickens turkeys with their heads cut off trying to get the last minute details out of the way.

We’ll be going to my parents house for the largest family gathering we’ve had in years. All three of my dad’s sisters and their spouses will be there in addition to the usual suspects. My mom had split up the cooking duties between me and my brother and his wife and herself so no one has to do it all.

I’m in charge of apple pie and although I was only told to bring one, I’ll probably bring two because honestly, it’s not that much more work to make two than it is to make one. We’re also in charge of mashed potatoes, which we’ll make at home and bring in a crockpot (we’re doing buffet style this year because of the number of people). That will work out very good because my mom is a health nut and thinks  you make mashed potatoes with skim milk. Every year we sneak butter and cream into them and she proclaims that the potatoes are so good, why would you need to add more calories. My mom’s in great shape and that alone is testament to the importance of a healthy diet but for crying out loud, if you can’t eat a few extra calories on Thanksgiving when can you.

My grandma with four of her nine grandchildren. The littlest one is me and that’s my brother to my left.

I’m also making creamed pearl onions, which is a throwback to the Thanksgivings of my childhood at my grandma’s house. I loved Thanksgiving as a kid. We always made place cards (hand turkeys, etc.) and got to sit at the kids table which was super fun. I remember my grandma almost never sat down for dinner. She was constantly popping up to refill a dish or get something from the kitchen that she had forgotten, even though everyone told her to just sit down. She always overcooked the green beans and let me tell you, she never made mashed potatoes with skim milk.

Many years later, this photo of her with four of her five granddaughters was taken. I think this may have been her 90th birthday and she was stylish even then. See what cream and butter in mashed potatoes does for you? 

We’ll miss her this Thanksgiving, as we have in all of the six years since she died, but I’m sure she’d be happy to see her whole family together again for Thanksgiving.

And this is the part where I’m going to exercise serious restraint and not get into how I feel about stores opening on Thanksgiving, meaning that those employees cannot be with their families on the holiday. What would I rather have: One more Thanksgiving where I got to sit around the table with grandma or a $300 giant television? There’s no contest.

And I leave you with this fantastic video, one I hope to recreate for you tonight because we are definitely going to try this.

marie thanksgiving
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
4 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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previous post: GATHERING THE SUPPLIES
next post: HOLIDAY CHEER FOR OUTSIDE

Comments

  1. Ms. Wis./Each Little World says: November 26, 2014 at 10:11 pm

    Sounds wonderful! My assignment is brownies for those who do not like pumpkin pie and I am bringing two kinds of cranberries. One has dried cherries and crystalized ginger; the other is pickled onions with cranberries and chipotles. You never want to show up with one of something when you could bring two.

    Reply
  2. Stephen Andrew says: November 27, 2014 at 12:37 am

    What a sweet post. Your mom sounds like my mom. What does she eat at Thanksgiving? The tiny pan of roaster broccoli I make just for her. My mashed potatoes have cream, butter, sour cream, cream cheese, and buttermilk. Sounds like it would be so heavy and fattening that no one would eat them. People go nuts for them. My Thanksgiving is tiny this year. Which is kinda nice for a change. I have ample time to fuss over each detail. I'll be fighting the temptation to go get my Tim horton's coffee tomorrow morning. They're open, but like you, I feel they should be closed. Happy Thanksgiving!

    Reply
  3. Katie @ Team Skelley says: November 27, 2014 at 3:51 am

    Your grandmother was a looker! She sounded like my grandmother who also never sat down when hosting family, she would always be in the kitchen tending to someone or something. And I 1000 percent agree with you about stores opening on Thanksgiving. It is utterly ridiculous. This year I will be bringing shrimp cocktail, which was always a Christmas staple at Grandmother's house. Happy Thanksgiving, Friend!

    Reply
  4. Heather - New House New Home says: November 27, 2014 at 12:12 pm

    Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! Growing up here in Canada after immigrating from England, Thanksgiving wasn't a big holiday for our family. I don't even remember having a turkey until I was in my teens. But as an adult, it quickly became my favourite holiday. Of course, ours is earlier when Canada is truly in autumn (not flirting with winter like now). And don't get me started on your stores opening – really????!!!!!

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I fell in love with gardening through container de I fell in love with gardening through container design and it’s probably still my favorite type of gardening. My trip to Philadelphia area gardens was full of so many excellent ideas. For several years I’ve been enamored with clustered pots, but in my opinion they work best when they are able to stand alone in a space. And you probably know me well enough by now to know that as far as I’m concerned, the bigger the pot, the better. Feast your eyes on these beauties and use your zooming fingers to really get into those nooks and crannies. 

Don’t forget to save your favorites because you know you’re going to be looking for them come next spring. 😀

Photos 1 & 2: Amazing container cluster at @longwoodgardens  that works particularly well because of the restraint used in the design. Also how many different ways is the universe going to tell me I need to grow agave before I actually listen?

Photo 3: This was probably favorite display I saw the whole time and of course it’s from the masters at @chanticleergarden This is a master class in texture. It’s also probably not attainable for the average home gardener because it relies heavily on tropicals that need proper overwintering in order to reach a good size. But there’s no reason why I (or you) couldn’t use this as inspiration to create a similar feel with other plants. 

Photo 4: Strappy foliage, bright orange and colorful pots create such a good doorway collection at @chanticleergarden 

Photo 5, 6 & 7: Similar colors were used at a patio doorway at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm home garden. A pot is perfectly framed by an arbor off a side patio. The front entrance has a pink theme (and an amazing feature pot that I couldn’t show here because all my shots are vertical). 

Photo 8: Back to @chanticleergarden where I could have studied this container planting for an hour just to soak up all the detail. 

Photo 9: And while I love a pot with a lot going on, never underestimate the power of a simply planted, gorgeous pot, like this one at @abunting64 garden Belvidere. 

#gbfling2023
I think every garden probably needs a little bit o I think every garden probably needs a little bit of water, even if it’s just a bird bath. All of the fabulous gardens I saw recently in the Philadelphia area incorporated water into them. Here are just a few examples of how lovely these water features were. 

@paxsonhillfarm @northviewgarden @brandywinecottage @longwoodgardens #gbfling2023
Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the vi Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the view even though we all know that most of us rarely take the opportunity to use them. The seating I saw in gardens in the Philadelphia area reflected their gardens and all were special. 

Make sure to share your favorite!

Photo 1:  I adored these perfectly lichen-covered chairs at @brandywinecottage

Photo 2: Great lichen game on this bench at Wayne Guymon’s mind-blowing garden WynEden. 

Photo 3: Perhaps my favorite seating moment of the whole trip was this chair in @jennyrosecarey @northviewgarden . Not only was it perfectly lichen covered (are you sensing a theme here?) but a volunteer cleome was growing right up through the middle of it. Unfortunately this photo of it isn’t grata because by this point in the trip my phone (I didn’t want to use my DSLR in the middle of the tropical storm so I switched to my phone) was getting very grumpy about the rain. 

Photo 4: I’d be happy to hang out on these chairs in @abunting64 ‘s gorgeous garden Belvidere. I loved this space. 

Photo 5: Color was the name of the game on this patio at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm. 

Photo 6: The most original table and benches I saw were at @abunting64 garden. This was a portion of the garden that was actually on the neighbors’ property adjacent to Andrew’s. It had been a vegetable garden but is getting a bit too shady so it will soon have a new life. 

Photo 7: We visited Barbara Tiffany’s Mill Fleurs in a deluge, which is a shame, and dotted throughout the property are examples of her husband Tiff’s amazing furniture. This was, called the Centipede was upholstered and quite different from the others. All were amazing works of art. 

Photos 8 and 9: The @scott_arboretum at @swarthmorecollege had some excellent seating, from brand new @deebenarc chairs to more lichen-covered charmers.

#gbfling2023
*** I can already see that some people do not unde *** I can already see that some people do not understand humor so let me just say this: 1. I was fully aware of the escaped convict situation (I’m an avid follower of the news, which is common for us journalists). 2. It’s ok to laugh about the fact that I’ve missed the Longwood meadow twice through weird circumstances while being a rational adult and realizing that I’m not making light of the situation that led to the meadow being mown. ***

I missed seeing @longwoodgardens beautiful meadow the first time I visited so I was excited to see it the second time. Not so fast! Turns out it had to be mown down during the search for an escaped convict who was hiding out there (at least that’s what I was told was the reason for the mowing). He’ll never see goldenrod the same way again! 😀

That whole situation was really unfortunate for @longwoodgardens (not to mention everyone who lives in the area), which had to be closed for about a week while the hunt was on!
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