Thanksgiving eve dinner - gumbo and bread pudding

Every year, my mother-in-law hosts Thanksgiving lunch. She lives here in town, so it's easy for us to all dine together. I have taken to hosting dinner on the eve of Thanksgiving as a gift to her. She is usually hosting out-of-town family and years ago I decided it might be nice to take one thing off of her plate... no need to worry about feeding everyone the night before a big meal.

So I'm getting ready right now and the gumbo is smelling good. Unfortunately, I don't have a recipe for it. My husband has learned from my mother how to make authentic gumbo (I grew up in Mississippi and have Louisiana roots) and he's responsible for putting that together. I'll serve French bread with it and that's a meal. I tend to always fix gumbo. Everyone loves real homemade gumbo and it's a nice departure from all the traditional cranberry/turkey/sweet potato delights we get tomorrow.

For dessert, I'm making pralines and Martha's croissant bread pudding. The bread pudding is a favorite in our house and it's super easy. I highly recommend it.

Finally, I thought I would include a grainy photo of my turkey planter with flowers. I love vintage turkey planters. I found this one on eBay years ago. They are really sweet and remind me of something my grandmother would have had. (I also have my grandmother's collection of Christmas pins... mostly trees and not especially valuable, but it's tender insight into how much she loved holidays and entertaining).