We’re talking Homemade Magic today.💖 Do come along, won’t you? MUSICA!
Thought I would talk about the magic of this season . . . We’re all going to be making some this next week (and month)!
We’re cooking up some magic at home and taking it to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving this year! I’m making my heavenly Pumpkin Cheesecake (you can make this gluten free by making one change in the recipe, use gluten-free ginger snaps for the crust, and voila!)
I’m also making my Sweet Potato Casserole ⬆️ a wonderful recipe which I sometimes serve in mini pumpkins . . . 
But this time I’m just baking it in a casserole dish so it’s easier for travel. (Like my apron? Quite the garment! No mistaking the holiday!)🎃
I’m also providing the cranberry sauce which I almost force them to let me do because I love this simple recipe so much, to me it sparkles ~ plus I’ll make extra for my must-have-for-the-holidays, Christmas Jam. Both recipes are below:
I get to jump over it this year, because they are making the turkey!
And we’ll taste someone else’s “idea” of stuffing 😱 but we’ll be brave, it’s good for us, makes us better people. But Joe has gathered the ingredients to add some extra gravy to the general good.
I’m not making Rainbow Jell-O this year because we’ll be all adults (and one new baby!) but if you’re having kids at your table, this is a wonderful recipe for them to put in their forever memory banks. It’s kid food, and they know it and I believe, feel grateful for it. But trust me, big kids like it too! 
This was our dinner last year, the leftovers looked almost as good as when we put the dinner on the table! We tried to make enough for every one to have leftovers to-go!
I thought you might like a few photos of Holidays-passed, of some of my decorated table ideas . . .
This was a casual dinner we had at the kitchen table using my old mix-and-match pottery collection, and the antique black-iron candlesticks I found somewhere along the way. (No marks on the bottom of these, I’m sorry to say, would love to tell you where they come from!)
Candlelight makes everything look better! More romantic, prettier colors, softer light, the food even tastes better in candlelight! And a little poem or a prayer written on a menu stand helps to set the tone. Because Thanksgiving is so wonderfully about gratitude and memory.
Cookbooks, wooden spoons, and recipe boxes (with mom and grandma’s handwriting on recipe cards) make evocative Thanksgiving table decorations. I love using stuff I have around the house. A table with lots of little framed 
photos works too. Makes for lots of happy conversation. Also, you can make placemats out of old photos (enlarge on copier), that’s fun too ~ you can even use them as place cards, “find your photo and that’s where you sit”. (I’ve forgotten to take pictures of my table settings in the past, I try not to let that happen anymore!)
Pile together a few of your favorite things, collections, or family memories, interesting things to look at that relate to you and yours . . . the little shoes, remember from my book? I wrote how I found them in the attic at Holly Oak, left behind by Agnes, my secret guardian angel. Now there she is, on our Thanksgiving table.
More found objects . . . Leaves and pinecones make perfect place cards!
Small low vases of flowers are good too, you can see over them! See the candlestick with the star bobeche? I found those bobeche years ago and LOVE them, I bring them out any time I need a starry night!🕯
I always use them for the holidays, but in the summer too, under the stars . . .
I looked for them for years to put in our web store, but never found them. Off and on, I’ve managed to get people to make them for us, but they’ve been very hard to get. See how you set the bobeche on top of the candle stick?⬆️
And then the candle slips through the hole and into the stick ~ 🕯
Voila! Anyway, I finally found a new manufacturer! And this time I had them made from lightweight acrylic, just like the ones I found so many years ago. In case you need some starry light on your holiday tables!🕯
Bobeche! Here’s how they look without the candles. And, something special, to celebrate this wonderful season . . .
For YOU! YES, leave a comment at the end of this post, and we’ll have a drawing, and see who is going to be the winner of this pair of starry bobeche!
I love it when they play Little Women on TV on Thanksgiving. It’s such perfect background “music.” Reminds me of simpler days and the things that really matter. The smell of dinner cooking is enough to set the entire mood of the day. And isn’t it wonderful, it’s not about gifts?! Only the little ones that really count. Like home. And P.S. Something special for PLU (people like us) . . . LOOK what’s coming this Christmas! 
Because magic can come in very small packages. It doesn’t have to be fancy. All this decorating is nice, if you have the time, and are in the mood, but there are no rules. Just one little pumpkin on a porch or a kitchen table is lovely and festive and says it all. That, a roasted chicken, a baked apple, a little candle, and a prayer is all we need.
And the day after Thanksgiving, while filled to overflowing with gratitude and contentment and pumpkin pie, and blessed by everything we have, feed your soul in nature on Green Friday. I fear we are teaching our children greed by celebrating consumerism the day after Thanksgiving. Instead, teach magic, take your spirit and your kids to the sky . . .
Because God made the dirt roads, the woods, and the critters and gave them to us has His gift. And it’s our job to take care of them for Him. Honor them for Him.
Quiet places with wind and bird sounds fill your heart with thanks and wash the stress away. (Would you like to read my Love Letter to Martha’s Vineyard? In your spare time!)
A wonderful gift from the sea, free! And we didn’t have to stand in line under klieg lights to get it!
The pause that refreshes. The sound of snowfall is good for you!
The gift that keeps on giving. Other things to do besides 
hugging trees that cause magic: have a turkey-sandwich, pumpkin-pie picnic outside, or surprise the lady down the street and have your whole family go to her house and plant bulbs. (I’ll give you my address!) Bring someone who’s stuck inside OUT, and take them to nature. Adopt a new petty pet! 💖 Or,
Cuddle in front of a fire . . .
Dreaming of a better tomorrow? Let it show in everything you do.💞 We are so lucky!
Here’s a Thanksgiving Prayer bookmark, for you to print out, just click there. I’ve memorialized the childhood prayer Joe “sang” to me when we first met. (Suzy, Nosey, Inky, and so on, were his family’s pets!❤️)
And don’t forget to leave a comment for the starry bobeches. Blessings on you and yours darling friends! Have the MOST wonderful Thanksgiving.🎃 
in England together, but many of you talk to them when you call the Studio, or you’ve written to say how much you love the caring way they wrap packages they send from our web store. Kellee on the left, has been my right-hand person for twenty years (‼️), and Sheri, on the right, has been making our lives easier for the last ten years. Which means, if any of you have been trying to get hold of them for the last week, you now know why you couldn’t! They’re here!
wonderful art of cooking. And, from 
