Mouthful: Thanksgiving feast at Safari West

Ms. Mouthful's Thanksgiving Pick: If you're looking for a special option for Thanksgiving, Ms. Mouthful recommends Safari West's annual feast.

There are two seatings, one at noon and one at 4 p.m. Cost is $65 for adults and $25 for kids aged 4 to 12.

This year's menu begins with appetizers (fruit, cheese, artichoke dip, bread), followed by green salad with candied pecans, apples and lemon-poppy seed dressing and butternut squash soup topped with creme fraiche.

The main holiday buffet features roast turkey with cornbread and apple stuffing and gravy, with cranberry sauce and cranberry chutney; grilled flank steak; spiral-cut honey ham; mashed potatoes; candied sweet potatoes; green beans with butter, garlic, basil and tomatoes and fresh Costeaux breads. For dessert, there's pumpkin pie and apple pie, both with freshly whipped cream.

Beer, wine and soft drinks are available for purchase.

The specific menu almost doesn't matter. The most wonderful part is simply being at Safari West, watching the giraffes, cranes and flamingos and visiting the cheetahs.

For more information and for reservations, visit safariwest.com or call 579-2551.

New Tasting Fun at Meadowcroft Tasting Room: Meadowcroft Wines, in Cornerstone Sonoma (23570 Arnold Drive, Sonoma) has recently introduced new pairing opportunities for visitors.

One pairing features five wines paired with dried apricot, pecans, maple-bacon popcorn, a chocolate-covered blueberry and Vella cheese.

A second option is a confection extravaganza, with too many sweet nibbles and too many wines to mention. A highlight is the grand finale, a dark Belgian chocolate with fleur de sel accompanied by either Meadowcroft Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon or All She Wrote port.

Meadowcroft Wines include three labels, Meadowcroft, Thomas Henry and Foyt Family. The tasting room is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Cornerstone Sonoma is a great place to simply hang out and a perfect destination when you want to send visiting family out of the house for a few hours. The gardens, now free to visit, are really interesting; there's a great garden shop, a good restaurant, art galleries, design shops and more. And starting Nov. 29, there is special entertainment.

Le Cirque de Boheme begins Nov. 29 and continues through Dec. 2. Although several performances are sold out, there are seats available for Nov. 29 at 5 p.m., Nov. 30 at 5 p.m.and Dec. 2 at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

The show is a 1920s-style circus in the French tradition, with magicians, sword throwers, slack rope walkers, contortionists and more, all part of a 10-year-old girl's dream journey.

Admission is $25 for adults and $15 for kids 15 and younger. It all takes place under a large garden tent, with just 80 guests. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit cornerstonegardens.com.

Sixth Annual Friends House Celebration: On Saturday, Friends House (684 Benicia Drive, Santa Rosa) hosts its sixth annual Holiday Faire and Quaker Tea, one of Ms. Mouthful's favorite events of the season. It offers a gentle, thoughtful entry into the holidays and alleviates the stress that may already be developing.

The fair takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a marketplace featuring baked goods and preserves, knitted, quilted, felted, turned and carved items, international imports and more. At the Albino Pachyderm Shop, you'll find all manner of gently-used treasures.

Tea, which includes sandwiches, scones, Devonshire cream, lemon curd, Portingall cake and other sweets and, of course, tea, is served at 10:30, 11 and 11:30 a.m. and at 12, 1:30, 2, 2:30 and 3 p.m.

Cost for tea is $20 per person, and seating is limited so you should make reservations at friendshouse.org or by calling 538-0152.

Celebrate at Schug Winery: If you have a gently used coat that you no longer need, you can use it to attend this weekend's Holiday Open House at Schug Winery (602 Bonneau Road, Sonoma). The coats will be donated to two local organizes that serve homeless individuals and foster children. For more information about this project, visit onewarmcoat.org.

If you don't have a coat to donate, $10 will get you in. The money will be donated to scholarship funds at Santa Rosa Junior College and Napa Valley College.

Once in, you'll enjoy tastes of current releases paired with yummy nibbles prepared by the winery's chef.

For an additional fee, you can taste a selection of Heritage Reserve wines and the winery's spectacular Sparkling Pinot Noir.

Calolea Olive Oil company will be offering samples of its oils throughout the two-day event, which takes place Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Shake Out Your Victorian Finery: The Great Dickens Christmas Fair & Victorian Holiday Party opens this Saturday at the San Francisco Cow Palace (2600 Geneva Ave.), where the entire venue is transformed into Victorian London at Christmas, circa 1865.