I agree! One of the more silly things I love at Thanksgiving is my turkey plates.   I’m not kidding, I really do love them. Sitting at a table of great food surrounded by gobble plates, turkey napkins, and corn candle holders makes me very happy for some reason. This year, I had even more reason to be happy, and that was my brand new turkey gravy boat. Behold:

Anyone that reads this blog also knows something else. I’m cheap a tightwad frugal. Yes, frugal. I love me a good bargain. This year’s bargain came courtesy of the Salvation Army Store where I purchased my beautiful gravy boat for $1.16. It had a broken ladle. As if that was going to deter me! I happen to have a very lovely ladle at home that went perfectly with it. I made a new gravy recipe to put in this gravy boat and it got wild raves from everyone. (The recipe is from the fabulous Barefoot Contessa. If you make it, skip the creme and white wine, and only use half the amount of butter. I’m just saying…) My husband was still complimenting me on it after eating the leftovers for two days. Good recipe!

This year was a Packer Thanksgiving, also. We beat the Lions in a convincing win, and the world was as it should be. Not much to say since we played the Lions. Stafford played hurt, which was a surprise, but he is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming years. Mark my words.

Since the Packer game was on Thanksgiving, we didn’t make soup for the game. However, on Sunday we settled in for a day of watching the Bears lose game watching and used up our leftovers by making turkey vegetable soup with stuffing dumplings. My GOSH this is a great recipe. First, however, I did tweak it. Rather than boiling the carcass, I used chicken broth. I skipped the whole black peppercorns and added some egg noodle pasta (about 6 oz) because the two cups of stuffing really did not fill up the pot. I opted for more broth rather than less (about 94 oz). In the future, I think I will make extra stuffing at Thanksgiving to use specifically for this recipe. (Or do as I did this time and just add some pasta.)

This was a wonderful way to use up all the leftovers. The soup takes some carrots and celery, onions, and leftover corn and combines that with the stuffing dumplings and turkey. I also used dry thyme instead of fresh (about two teaspoons) and put salt and pepper into both the broth and the dumplings. This is one recipe that is better the next day, also. Give the soup some time to mesh all those great flavors together and you won’t be disappointed. It’s a wonderful recipe, so hats off to Wes Martin for coming up with it.

I really had an epiphany this year, as well. So often I get a little sad at the holidays because our family is so very small now. But not this year. We had a lovely time, a relaxing weekend, and a few days that made me realize the blessings I have in my life. Hope your holiday was bright and here’s to the upcoming set of special days we’ve got in December!