Day before Thanksgiving....

... and we've been cooking, cooking, and cooking.

The oyster dressing is made, as are the mashed potatoes... all ready in pans to go into the oven for re-heating tomorrow. My husband makes both of those dishes every year. I've made the sweet potatoes (not a marshmallow in sight) and the pumpkin pie.... friends are bringing a pecan pie, so I didn't bake an apple pie.  I also just finished whipping fresh cream for the pies.... not a job you want to do when you're wearing fancy clothes for a holiday meal, so that's done.

The dining room table is all set and looking very pretty. There will be 8 of us around the table, so I've made pretty little place cards--- wrapped up chocolates with a name on each little package...  all in Thanksgiving colors. Very cute.... I love making place cards with a little surprise inside of them.

The weather has been great..... a bit cool at night and during the early morning, but by lunch time, the sun has warmed everything up and it feels like Spring. And that's about the kind of 'winter' weather that I would be perfectly happy with every year.

Now I need to figure out how many hours to cook the turkey tomorrow..... I bought a turkey breast this year which weighs nearly 9 pounds. My turkey-breast-cooking guide goes up to just 7 pounds.... so I'll check the Food Network web-site for the proper cooking time.  That's the only part of Thanksgiving that I really don't enjoy--- cooking a turkey, or any part thereof.

It would have been so much nicer if the Pilgrims had feasted on salmon or lobster way back when.

Happy Thanksgiving!