It’s my week to host the Friday Five! 🙂

Here in the US, we celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. At our home, we hosted 20 people for dinner — what fun! The dishes are (mostly) put away… and we’re ready for leftovers. The turkey carcass will start its journey towards soup this morning in my kitchen. And the various left-overs from our holiday spread have either been sent home with guests who wanted some, or stacked in my over-stuffed refrigerator.

So let’s think about leftovers today…

1. Leftovers are sometimes a “kitchen surprise” at my house when unlikely combinations just work great! For instance, my mom often made a casserole with leftover chicken/turkey and water chestnuts! What has SURPRISED you in this season of Thanksgiving? It can be culinary, personal or spiritual.

This year I have been posting a “thankfulness” post on Facebook every day. It has been truly enjoyable. I never really struggled to find something to post. Sometimes doing these month-long events, I run out of steam. Not yet. 🙂

2. Share a recipe or a favorite way to use up all the extra food from a big holiday meal! What’s your specialty? Tacos? Pot Pies? Soup? Eggrolls? (It goes without saying — we want the recipes!)

I haven’t tried this one yet, but I think we are going to attempt Rachel Ray’s Turkey and Cranberry Strombolis. They just sound delish! 🙂 I may make my own dough, though.

3. We have a Sunday in between Thanksgiving and Advent this year, (to which all the preachers say, “THANK YOU!”) Are you wrapping up Thanksgiving, preaching about Christ the King, or having “leftovers” with someone doing pulpit supply? (I would note that as a seminarian, this was the weekend I was always assigned to preach.)

I’m not currently in a job where I preach much, so I don’t have much to offer here.

4. Do you give the holidays their due? Or are you tempted to rush past the fall festivals for a love of Christmas? Because The Johnnie is home from college for the weekend, we will being decorating the house for Christmas. Are you likewise tempted, or are you waiting a week?

We are going to decorate this weekend. For one thing, it means I have more help. For another, it’s a great family time. We should have most the decorating done (along with baking some cookies!) before The Johnnie heads back to campus on Sunday.

5. Is there some THING, some TASK or some ONE who gets the “leftovers” of your attention? Hmmmm… yeah, that one may not be easy to answer!

Probably my personal leftovers are housework. I can find just about anything to do that will keep me from cleaning or doing chores. It’s just something I don’t enjoy. At. All. I think if I had a better attitude, I would be able to keep ahead of the mess instead of letting it get to Mt. Everest proportions… 

BONUS: A photo of your last holiday spread, family/guests or soup pot. Or those who are begging for the same.

I didn’t get a picture of all of the food!! But here’s a photo of the table before the guests arrived. We made an open invitation to church and friends to join us, and we had 20 folks here yesterday. It was fun!