We hosted a holiday party for my SCUBA club yesterday. We made it a pre-Thanksgiving dinner, and smoked the turkey, using both Zatarains Cajun injection and Zatarains Cajun rub on the bird. It was a 12 lb bird, smoked about 6 hours over apple and a bit of pecan wood. It turned out very nice, though a little salty since the only turkey I could find had been pre-injected with broth/table salt/sodium phosphate (most commercial turkeys are). I skipped the brine for that reason, but it would have been even better without the commercial pre-injection.
I tried a new gravy recipe from the "Meathead--the science of great BBQ and grilling" cookbook, and we really liked it. You fill a pan with chicken broth, cut up onion, carrots, celery, lots of fresh and dried herbs, and the various bits trimmed from the turkey. The pan goes on the lower rack, the turkey above it, for four hours, to cook the pan contents and catch the turkey drippings. The the broth gets filtered off, defatted, and boiled on the stove to concentrate it a bit. It's kept thin, so it can be lightly spooned over the turkey after it is carved and the meat soaks up the flavor and moisture. I'll be doing that again.