Happy Thanksgiving!

Last year, we started a tradition of hosting some of our friends for an "orphan Thanksgiving". As you can probably guess, an "orphan" is someone who doesn't have any family locally and can't or does not travel home for Thanksgiving. This year, we missed the presence of our friends Bonnie and Joe, who participated in the inaugural event last year, but have since moved to Washington, DC. However, we enjoyed a new participant, Becky.

Thanksgiving preparations begin early for the Nonericks. A few days before the big meal, we start making and preparing food dishes, usually desserts. I made a pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust and Ryan, an emerging baker, made homemade apple pie. He used these crust ingredients from this apple pie recipe, and this filling recipe.

Some of you may be asking yourself, "How do two vegetarians celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving? " Yes, it's true that we don't eat turkey, but we have the next best thing: Tofurkey!

Mmmm... Tofurkey!!

Tofurkey does not come in the shape of a turkey (I think some turkey substitutes do), but it does have a yummy stuffing, "giblet" gravy, dumplings, and a soy-based turkey-jerky "wishbone". For the record, we have made a turkey for those meat eaters among us, but this year we didn't because most (or all) of our guests were vegetarian/more vegetarian than not.

Another Thanksgiving tradition is football. While preparing for the big feast, we watched the Packer/Lions game. I'm giving thanks for the Packer's 10-1 start this season. Next week, the Packers have a huge game against the Cowboys. Stay tuned for more football updates because this could be THE season, if you know what I'm sayin'.

Even Canadians Love The Packers

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving fun:

The Table
You may notice Ryan in the background. He's making whole wheat dinner rolls from scratch.


My attempt to Martha Stewart the heck out of our table.

Soma after returning from a play session at the dog park. Whenever we have guests coming over, we try to wear Soma out--do you think it worked?

I think this picture really captures the food-coma feeling of Thanksgiving. Granted, Soma does not eat people food, but this is definitely how I feel after eating Tofurkey with all the fixings.

Sitting on the couch in full food-coma mode. I don't know about the others, but I used all my energy to smile for this photo.
From the left are Byron, Amy, Becky, and me!

More than anything else, we are thankful for good friends, good family, and a good life. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!