Schedules were more congested than usual this year, so we ended up packing a lot into the Christmas weekend. Every year, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, our group of friends has what we call Thanksmas. It’s a formal holiday dinner for us and our families that we do potluck style. While it is usually more centralized between the two holidays, this year, it needed to be all the way out on the 23rd.

My husband and I hosted both Thanksmas and Christmas with my family on the 25th. For both events, we prepped and cooked a turkey, meaning two events were hosted and two turkeys were cooked in three days. We dry brine our turkeys, so they don’t take up as much space as a liquid brining. This was essential with all the stuff we had to pack into the refrigerator.

I think these were some of our best turkeys to date, coming out very moist and flavorful with the nice crispy skin. The gravy also turned out very tasty. Some of my other favorites were the stuffing, sweet potatoes, and – of course – my family’s traditional noodles.

With the two carcasses, we made a bunch of turkey stock. Some stock from the first turkey was used for the noodles on Christmas day, but we also ended up canning some of it. A couple of the cans did not seal in the pressure canner, so we put those in the refrigerator instead to use for soups over the next week. We’ll store the sealed ones for use later.

One of the coolest gifts I received for Christmas was from my sister. She is big into crafts (knitting, sewing, etc.) and started doing some basic quilting this year. She made some small quilted items, a handful of potholders, and a small table runner. They have some heat stuff in the middle, so we can use them all to hold hot items, and most of them have a summer theme with watermelons and other such images.

To friends and family reading this, thank you for all the gifts, food, and companionship this holiday season. And, to everyone, happy holidays and get ready for the new year!