Thanksgiving week, of all weeks, should be easy to come us with five favorites, right? I’m joining in with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to encourage looking for the good things, large or small, from each week.

1. Thanksgiving. I could do a whole Friday’s Fave Five on this one day. We had a veritable feast. Everyone contributed with food, preparation, and clean-up. We enjoyed family time, rest time, conversation, and games. And we had time to concentrate on what we were thankful for with our Thanksgiving tree.

2. Thanksgiving activities. In the past couple of years, I’ve gotten a tablecloth for the holidays that included puzzles, mazes, and pictures to color. I didn’t look for one in time this year, but Skip to My Lou had some free printable Thanksgiving place mats I used (She has tons of neat holiday ideas). Even though I just printed them off on 8 1/2 by 11″ paper, not really big enough for place mats, they still worked. Then, several weeks ago I found a “build a turkey” game and a kit of foam cats and dogs with different props (some got put on our Thanksgiving tree above) marked down at Hobby Lobby. Different ones of us sat down with Timothy before and after the meal, coloring or assembling.

3. Jim’s one-month post-op appointment. The surgeon was pleased with his progress and said the remaining discomfort and issues he’s still dealing with are normal and should resolve soon.

4. Family Face Time. Jeremy lives out-of-state and couldn’t be with us on Thanksgiving. He had plans with friends on Thanksgiving Day, so over the weekend we had a Face Time call with the whole family. It’s so neat that can be done with multiple people at one time.

5. A new way to do meatloaf. Sometimes it’s the little things. 🙂 For the past few years, I’ve made meatloaf in the microwave. But this time I wanted to do baked potatoes at the same time in the oven. While looking up how long to bake the meatloaf, I ran across this recipe for shaping the meat on a foil-covered sheet pan instead of a loaf pan. I had always wondered at the wisdom of the meat bubbling in it’s own juices in a loaf pan (even the leanest ground beef still has some fat). I tried this idea with my own recipe and loved the way it turned out. Plus the foil made for easy clean-up. I’ll be making meatloaf this way from now on.

How was your week?