​Happy Leftovers Week

My refrigerator has never been so full! I may have overdone it with the sweet potatoes. We had a tray of plain sweet potato casserole and one with roasted marshmallow on top – more than any family needed! LOL.  I honestly expected all the little kids (we had six) to gobble up the ones with the marshmallows the way my kids did, but nope, not a lot of sweet potato lovers this dinner!

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For me the special thing to be thankful for was my French Coca Cola. My dear friend, author Olivia Sands, brought me a liter bottle from France and I have been saving it for a time when I can slowly enjoy it. Unlike the rest of the world, the French Coke has a fraction of the sugar. And on top of that, it’s real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. The flavor is a bit different but I savor every sip LOL. Somewhere I read that it’s the closest thing to the original formula available!  
 
My husband’s treat is the leftover dinner sandwiches. He looks forward to those as much if not more than the meal. The man finds a way to fit stuffing and mashed potato and turkey and cranberry sauce and sometimes green been casserole too into a toasted sandwich. Sometimes I have to make extra stuffing to keep up with the leftover turkey sandwich requests, but it’s worth it for all the smiles that come with the family eating time.
 
This year we added ham to the mix. We had so many people I thought a little extra protein might be called for. To my surprise the big spiral hams were not available the days before thanksgiving. They’d sold out weeks before and wouldn’t have more till after New Year’s. I was flabbergasted. We did however find some small black forest hams at the local market and I just sliced them up and added a little honey water to make juice and the big old spiral was never missed!
 
What I found myself eating a lot of was leftover ham sandwich with butter on those little Hawaiian bread rolls. Those suckers are tasty and I enjoyed them as much as my husband his massive sandwiches. I may have to pick up more of the bread for the rest of the leftover ham!
 
As proud as I was of my ten foot table for twelve, (thanksgiving is actually my favorite family holiday)  I forgot to take a pretty before photo, so all I have is one shot of everyone eating and then a shot of the empty after table LOL. We did two tables. One for all the adults, including my fifteen year old nephew, and one for the kids, including my two year old grandson.  We all fit beautifully, but for the first time in over twenty years I was thinking we may need a bigger dining room – LOL! Especially as the younger generations increases and the young ones grow up.
 
 
I did have one little disappointment – someone spilled on the table and it wasn’t cleaned up fast enough so I have a cloud spot on my dining table. Anyone have any home made cures for that? I seem to remember something to do with mayonnaise but haven’t had time yet to look it up. The remainder of the visiting family will be here for a couple more days.  Then it will be back to working on the new series and Neil for Farraday Country.
 
All in all, the big hit of the holiday wasn’t the dinner at all but croquet! My husband introduced my nephews and niece to the game and they have been having a great time with it. Even this morning in the bitter cold, they’re out there swinging those mallets! So much fun to watch!
 
In the meantime, was anyone able to enjoy Picture Perfect over the holiday weekend? The reviews have been fun to read. I don’t get a lot of time to keep up with reviews, but early on I do read some and it’s always nice to see that a book we all fretted over (and this one had a LOT of fretting- LOL!) was well received and gave my fans what they expect from me.
 
Do you have a favorite holiday? Any family traditions? Would love to hear from you!
 
Take care! ​

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