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2024 Thanksgiving Menu and Meal Prep Timeline

* image These past few months have been busy for our family, especially since our oldest joined a local swim team. Between juggling our work schedules and balancing school with practices... we're all pretty wiped out. Although it's a lot of work, I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. Preparing the holiday meal for our family fills my heart with joy, and I can't wait to get started. To make things easier for me, I don't deviate much from  our first Thanksgiving  as a family. The dishes I make are familiar ones, and the recipes for them live at my fingertips. Keeping the same menu year after year means I don't have to spend time researching recipes or planning a new one. Here are my tried-and-true Thanksgiving recipes, as well as my prep timeline for the big day!

On the Side: Beneath It All, There's Just Sadness

Walter Judd and Michelle Judd Rittler | Taste As You Go

Some of you may have noticed that I've been quiet lately, keeping my chatter on my social media channels to a minimum. My relatively disengaged silence is related to a loss so great that I haven't truly begun to process it. Mainly because I won't allow my heart to open itself to the pain and sadness because I'm not ready to deal with it yet.


Earlier this week, my sweet and selfless grandfather passed away at the young-old age of 90. (The above photo was taken at his 90th birthday party back in June.) While I wasn't there with him when he took his last breath, I was able to sit with him and hold his hand a few days before he died.

He wasn't fully aware that I was in the room, and he couldn't hold a conversation with me, but that didn't stop me from telling him how much I loved him and how grateful I was for his love. And I told him how much it meant to Stephen and me to have him and my grandmother at our wedding.

Family Wedding Photo | Photo by Brian Samuels Photography
Photo by Brian Samuels Photography

In my ramblings, I recalled a conversation I had with him during the wedding reception:

"Are you happy, sweetheart?"

"The happiest."

"You're not the happiest."

"I'm not? Why not?"

"Because Steve's the happiest. He has you for his bride."

Is it any wonder that I look to my grandparents so often for guidance and perspective?

I'm sure I'll continue wearing my "strong face" to prevent myself from completely losing it before I'm ready to deal with my real emotions. To some it'll appear as if I'm going about my business as usual... but really, beneath it all, there's just sadness.

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