An Old Thanksgiving Tradition Made New

I'm not sure if my Grandma Krause ever used the 12 piece fine bone china set my father sent back to her from Vietnam for Thanksgiving (I never ever remember eating off of these dishes or watching the serving bowls and platters being used) but I've got all 12 place-settings in my kitchen this year, and tomorrow my husband and I will eat turkey from the dinner plates and eat Cranberry-Pear Crisp dessert from the dessert plates. I will serve the green bean casserole from one of the serving bowls and serve dinner rolls from a small serving platter. The gravy will be served in the china gravy boat. The silver we use will be my great-aunt Kootchie's which I spent several hours cleaning today and ended up looking like a chimney-sweep after this task was completed. While the green bean casserole and dessert were baking, I hand washed the china pieces Mark and I will use tomorrow by hand. This is serious china, people-there are finger bowls for Pete's sake! I decided to skip using them because explaining how to use them to Mark would be way too complicated. Neither one of us drink coffee or hot tea, so that negated the need to wash the teapot, tea cups and coffee cups-which are actually different vessels. Who knew?

Obviously this china cannot be washed in the dishwasher, so this evening I sat on my living room floor and hand washed the china and silver in one plastic-bin container, rinsed them in another and hand dried them. They are currently sitting on my kitchen table, ready for use tomorrow. 

Although it was initially an inconvenience that my mother "refused" to dine with us on Thanksgiving, this is actually the second year of what will now become "our Thanksgiving tradition." Moving forward, Mark & I will plan on a Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us; sorry family, but there will be no invitations to attend Thanksgiving dinner at our home. We will dine on an amazingly cooked dinner by yours truly alone; just the two of us. No expectations, no disappointments. 

I just took the Cranberry-Pear Crisp out of the oven. It smells absolutely amazing and I'm sure its taste will match. To my family who has deserted this feast, you only have yourself to blame and no matter what you eat tomorrow, it will suck compared to the feast I create. You have no one to blame but yourself.