In case you missed it on our Facebook page yesterday, there was some talk about preparing for Thanksgiving. I posed a question to our FB friends about how everyone will be celebrating…traveling, staying home, hosting, etc. In my house, Ethan absolutely loves to help me bake anything sweet and has become a real whiz at cracking eggs lately! In the thread, I was asked for my GFCF Cornbread Dressing recipe, so I wanted to share it here, too.
This recipe is from my maternal Grandmother (who was a tremendous cook and baker), it later became my mom’s (who is also amzaing in the kitchen and converted many of her mom’s recipes to be GF many years ago). When I started cutting casein from Ethan’s diet, Grammy’s recipe transformed once again! The result is below. If you give it a try, let me know what you think. (I apologize in advance for the lack of precise measurements – especially in the dressing recipe…I’m a “taste it as you go” kind of cook most of the time!)

Thanksgiving is just a week away! How can we make the most out of this special social holiday for our children? Here are a couple ideas:
Plan out your Thanksgiving day
Here are some important things to think about to help set your child up to succeed on Thanksgiving:
-Whose house will you be at?
-Is there any area for your child to play?
-Is there any area for a quiet time or break?
-Who will be at Thanksgiving?
-Will it be quiet or loud?
-Will there be other children to play with your child (older or younger)?

Before Autism, I was highly organized and often had most - if not all - of my Christmas shopping done by this time of the year. In past years, I would even deliver all of my family’s Christmas gifts during our Thanksgiving trip, if I knew we wouldn’t see them for Christmas.
Now I’m just doing well to make it through Thanksgiving and manage to keep going. I’m not complaining - I love preparing a GFCF meal that I know my son will be able to enjoy, but I’m a little burned out; just a little.
Again, I love that at my house on Thanksgiving, my guy isn’t told “no” about anything on the table…it is just a little exhausting to have to prepare the majority of it. Can’t just run out to Kroger, or even Whole Foods for that matter, and buy GFCF rolls/dressing/pie that “feel” like the Thanksgiving foods I grew up with. That’s why my mom and I have worked to adapt our recipes to make them all homemade. And to be honest – they rock! I love to bake and cook – especially for the holidays, but I don’t love to clean it all up! Wow – what a mess! It is so much easier to celebrate with my mom because we both cook and we both clean so it seems to take half the time. Boy did I miss her this year! I’m still cleaning up from hosting 10 here at our house.

Its only 5 pm, and already the food has been eaten, the company has left, and most of my family is napping with full bellies.
I have so much to be thankful for in my life. Health, home, employment, a partner who loves and respects me, children that I laugh with daily, and God who gives me all of this.
I am particularly thankful tonight for an encouraging, understanding support system. The teachers, caregivers, family, friends and even strangers who help me keep my chin up when the going gets tough.

“It’s November! It’s almost Thanksgiving!!!!”
“AND PUMPKIN PIE?!?!?”
“Is it time for the special feast!?!?”
“This is my pilgrim hat!”

It’s TURKEY TIME! Thanksgiving is filled with family, friends, food and traditions. What do all these things have in common? Socialization! Thanksgiving Day and the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving provide us with wonderful natural language and social learning opportunities. We want to start helping you prepare your child for Thanksgiving now. The more familiar they are with Thanksgiving and the people that they will see, the more likely they will want to participate and interact with others on the actual day.

Thankful
In the spirit of Thanksgiving week, we thought we’d take a step back and share a couple little moments with our kids and families that made us smile the past couple of weeks. We feel very thankful to be involved in the lives of so many amazing parents, children and other professionals.
-Being handed a handmade Thank You card from one incredibly cute 5 year old. This was then followed by the best hug I have gotten in a good while.