Wishing You the Happiest of Thanksgivings

Thanksgiving is a special day to remind us to slow down and be truly thankful for what we have. I know I'm so blessed to have my family, friends, and wonderful customers, many of whom I now count as friends in my life. Y'all enrich my life beyond words!

When we lived in Michigan, we shared Thanksgiving with my family and my husband's. In fact, as the years went by, my family started joining my husband's family, so we had one big party. A lot of years, there were about 40 of us all packed into my Mother-in-law's house. It was so much fun.

I was in charge of desserts since I had and still have a sweet tooth. I always made my famous and much-requested cheesecake and paired it with a lovely Organic Assam Tea.

Other dessert and tea options included creme puffs paired with Earl Grey Creme de la Creme and, of course, homemade pumpkin pie paired with Organic Darjeeling - First Flush.

The other dessert we all looked forward to was the homemade cannolis Tony's Auntie Angie would always make. These were enjoyed with espresso for the coffee lovers and Creme Brulee Black Tea for the tea lovers.

Of all the food and desserts, I miss the cannolis the most. Auntie Angie tried to teach me to make them, but mine just don't taste the same...sigh.

I miss this holiday tradition of the big family get-together so much since moving, but we've made new ones.

This year I'll be heading to a good friend's house. As a hostess gift, I'll be giving her one of my 3-Tier Customer Canisters filled with the Dessert Teas, along with sharing my famous cheesecake and pumpkin pie.

So, now that you know what I've got planned. I thought I'd give you some fun, random trivia so that you can dazzle your family and friends while you're enjoying being gathered around the table.

• The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 over a three-day harvest festival. It included 50 Pilgrims, 90 Wampanoag Indians and lasted three days. Historians believe that only five women were present. There's something wrong with only five women attending, right? My thought is that all the other women were stuck cooking the food and didn't get to participate at the table. Of course, this is just my opinion with no history to back it up, but just consider how we do things today. Most women still do the majority of the cooking while the men watch football and the kids play. For those men and kids who do help cook, my hat's off to you :)
• The menu at the first Thanksgiving probably consisted of wild turkey, venison, duck, goose, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish were likely served, alongside pumpkins and cranberries (but no pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce!).
• Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday on October 3, 1863. Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote "Mary Had A Little Lamb," convinced Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday after writing letters for 17 years. Talk about dedication and tenacity.
• The history of U.S. presidents pardoning turkeys is patchy. Harry Truman is often credited with being the first president to pardon a turkey, but that's not entirely true. He was the first to receive a ceremonial turkey from the National Turkey Federation – and he had it for dinner. John F. Kennedy was the first to let a Thanksgiving turkey go, followed by Richard Nixon, who sent his turkey to a petting zoo. George H.W. Bush is the President who formalized the turkey pardoning tradition in 1989. Now the tradition is for each sitting President to pardon a turkey each year.
• There are four towns in the United States named "Turkey." They can be found in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina.
• The average number of calories consumed on Thanksgiving is 4,500, but who's counting.
• Butterball answers more than 100,000 turkey-cooking questions via their Butterball Turkey Hotline each November and December.
• The tradition of football on Thanksgiving began in 1876 with a game between Yale and Princeton. The first NFL games were played on Thanksgiving in 1920.
• A full-grown turkey has 3,500 feathers.
  Happy plucking :)

From our family to yours, we wish you an abundance of blessings and the happiest of Thanksgivings.