I’m back with another Let’s Look post and this month, the theme is … Thanksgiving Menu! Now THIS IS a prompt that I can get behind because I love eating and I love Thanksgiving food!

I have a weird history with Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving food. Growing up, I don’t have strong memories of celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. I have random memories of some years here and there when we did the whole shebang, but I also have a lot of memories of it just being a “day off” when nobody had work or school and there was no effort put into the meal.

Once I “grew up” and had a family of my own, I knew that I wanted to create some real, lasting traditions and memories for my kids. So let’s jump right into what I normally do for our family’s Thanksgiving menu!

It took a few years for J & I to sort of figure out what we wanted our Thanksgiving menu to look like. We generally split our Thanksgiving years: we‘ll spend one year up here at home and the next year with his parents down in Southern California. The last few years haven’t really panned out that way with the pandemic and such but usually that’s what we’d do. Since I didn’t grow up with memories of Thanksgiving traditions, I sort of had to start from scratch when deciding what I wanted our family to have for Thanksgiving traditions. A few years ago, both J & I sort of had a mutual realization that neither of us really love turkey. Actually, we really DISlike turkey if we’re honest. It’s not something that we look forward to either prepping, cooking, or consuming every Thanksgiving so we decided to do away with it and replace it with prime rib. BEST. DECISION. EVER.

As the mom of the family, I also decided that Thanksgiving is not a day that I want to be slaving away in the kitchen all day long. I know some people, that’s their love language and how they show their care for their family. For me, I’d rather spend that time actually being with my kids, relaxing, etc, instead of being stressed and running around in the kitchen. Sooooo, I always cater all our sides. My husband does the main (prime rib) and I cater all the sides. I cater from our local Whole Foods market and we do a quick grocery run early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day and bring all our catered sides home. I get *ALL THE THINGS*: mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, regular potatoes, salad, creamed spinach … if it sounds good on the Whole Foods website, I get it.

My kids LOVE Thanksgiving .. they love the food! E in particular is always slightly anxious and wants to make sure that I did indeed order all the sides she loves. Last year, she ate too much too fast and made herself sick. LOL .. that’s how much she loves Thanksgiving.

Now, I’ve mentioned that we usually alternate the years that we’re here versus when we’re with my in laws. When we’re with my in laws, my mother-in-law has typically “run the ship” and I just help out when I can. The last time we were there for Thanksgiving, though, I could tell that she sort of wanted to take a backseat with the cooking. This year we’re planning to go down for Thanksgiving so we told my in laws that J & I would prepare the meal… Sophisu style. Hubby will do his signature prime rib and I have already placed my catering order for all the sides at the Whole Foods near my in laws house 😂 Hey! If the system ain’t broke, don’t fix it, you know what I mean!?

Anyway, so that’s what our Thanksgiving menu looks like. It’s simple, convenient, and delicious … we’re trying to work smarter not harder on our holidays, you know? What do you guys do for Thanksgiving? Is it a traditional turkey? Something unique to just your family? Do you celebrate at all or do you just call it a day and go out to eat at a Chinese restaurant LOL (I definitely had a few years growing up when my parents did just that).

Next month is the last Let’s Look for 2021 and the prompt is ….

FAVORITE TRADITIONS. And boy oh boy, if there’s one thing you should know about me it’s that I loooooove a holiday tradition. That should be a fun post so make sure to check back for that in December!