OK, I am ready for the holidays.

For the Thanksgiving potluck, we'll make green beans with Portobello mushrooms. A cherry pie has been purchased for pick-up tomorrow, at the request of Mademoiselle.

 I also have some turkey legs and thighs to roast (I love Barbara Kafka's book on Roasting, in which most recipes start with "preheat the oven to 500 degrees"). I only got the dark meat parts, because I have never liked the breast, and a whole turkey is too  much for us. We also some turkey necks to make soup for "leftovers."I want to try to do things with yams and sweet potatoes that involve more than roasting them, we will smash yukon gold potatoes with garlic, cook up cranberries and oranges for a relish, and try assorted other holiday goodies: nuts to crack, chocolates, maybe bake some cookies?

I think we will have to have a movie marathon of some kind, with hot chocolate; that will be a time to I get started on decorating projects. I've had my eye on the paper rosettes at Paper Source. They aren't hard to make. I also have  a bunch of gaudy beads that I don't want to use for jewelry, so maybe we can make some bead/wire ornaments.