We Seriously Considered Lobster {anarchy!}...

...for this Thanksgiving, but, as Dani put it so well, obligation to tradition overwhelmed whim, so dinde rôti* it was, albeit butterflied this year.

We gathered around a table that had been hastily put together for a wonderfully casual family style celebration (with all the cooking to be done, the table kind of took a back seat until the last minute!) and enjoyed what all agreed was one of the very best Thanksgivings ever!

And with the menu's nod to our southern US roots (dirty rice dressing, to die for!) and our love of the other South, the south of France, (duck rillettes with prune/armagnac sauce), we truly feasted and lingered long at the table!

Here, then, à table!

we quickly gathered purple sage and

hydrangea from the garden, then put

colorful leaves from our neighbor's tree under

our autumnal centerpiece

Gala's cream china with gold borders, the

Minton plates from the flea, country French

goblets and silver on a table laid

with old French sheet and gorgeous

silk embroidered overlay,

another flea market find!

my caterer/events daughter Lisa was aghast at

how I just "rolled" the napkins! they should have

been laid flat and hanging off the edge of the

table to be perfectly "au courant"!

assorted silver serving pieces stand ready (to be polished)

for the feast to come! They are all cherished gifts or

flea market finds

we chose the same wine for dinner, serendipitously,

that Steven chose for his prune/armagnac sauce for

the incredible Duck Rillettes he made for us!

another view of the centerpiece... our Thanksgiving

table comes very close to looking quite

Christmasy this year!! except for the autumn leaves!

***

we all had a wonderful day,

except, perhaps for this

little fella:

*butterflied turkey... it cooks so

fast this way, I must confess it

almost burned... but was

delicious!!

***

I hope you had a WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING

and are enjoying our only decently long

holiday weekend of the entire year!

merci pur la visite! ... Kit