Saturday, November 26, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving came swiftly. A big rain storm was expected so I went shopping the weekend before to prepare for mud slides and flooding. Safeway was offering free turkeys 20 to 24 pounds with the purchase of $150 in food. I ended up spending $280 for my free turkey. My step mom Margaret was the only one available to come stay with us. I would pick her up and bring her back to her home the day after. I appreciated her willingness to spend the night so I wouldn't have to do the round trip drive twice in one day. I didn't want to drive after dark either. Especially with the inclinmant weather.

The turkey was frozen so I set it in the garage in a metal pot on a chair, so it would be off the floor in case there were unwanted little visitors to the garage. It took a couple of days with the cold weather, but the turkey finally bleed out. Then I had to worry about refrigeration so it didn't rot. I got the cooler out and put the turkey on ice until it was time to cook it on Thanksgiving. I added fresh ice every day for three days. That system worked well. It helped that the temperature was around 50 degrees outside.

Tom was in charge of the feast this Thanksgiving. I was going to pick up our only guest who lived over an hour away. I have been battling a cold. The day before Thanksgiving I woke with a sore throat. I could feel pressure in my sinuses, post nasal drip. I spent the day sleeping and dosing myself with all sorts of vitamins. Thursday morning, I plowed through the drive to pick up the family member, making Trevor come with me for company. I can't wait until the boys can drive so I can be the passenger in the car and not have to drive. The weather cooperated during the drive which made me feel good loaded up on Day Quil.

We stopped on the way home at a restaurant for brunch. Dinner was to be served at 4:00 pm. Trevor would never last that long without food. It took us a few stops to find a restaurant open on Thanksgiving. I liked having a break in the drive.

Tom did all the cooking this year. He loves doing the holiday cooking. I didn't feel up to it or the need to even try with Tom as the chef. Tom was in the kitchen having fun cooking. He likes to advise me about my cooking when around so I just opted out and let him take the show. It would put me on KP duty later, but well worth the peace and the good cooking.

He made Broccoli surprise which is his family's substitute version of green bean casserole. It has become a favorite in our household. I steamed some acorn squash as I knew Margaret had some food issues and this was one food she could eat. We also steamed some plain broccoli for her. There was stuffing seasoned with the innards from the turkey. Tom did have me mash the potatoes to which I added garlic for seasoning. A meal would not be complete without a can of Van Decamps Pork and Beans on the table. I bought roles, but we didn't even serve them with all the other food. The rolls made great sandwich bread for the leftovers later. It was an excess of food and fun.

Tom does tend to dirty every pot we have, so clean up took a while even with Margaret at the sink washing and washing and washing the pots and pans. I was scraping dishes and deboning the turkey, starting the stock for the tomorrow's turkey soup, and finding room in the small fridge that we have now for all the left overs. Tom cooked enough for 20 people and there were only the five of us.

Tom asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I told him a new refrigerator that matches the appliances we are going to install in stainless steel. Our last house, I had given Tom a gas range with double ovens. We had two fridges, one in the garage for back up. With the move we had brought the spare and left the nice fridge for the tenant. We both miss that nice fridge, especially since it had the ice maker in it. We miss the double ovens even more when cooking a big feast.

Once the Turkey was done, it had to be set on the counter and be covered for a half hour to stay warm, while all the other dishes went into the single oven to bake. It was time consuming and cumbersome.

Tom definitely wants the kitchen to be our next project. I thought asking for the fridge was brilliant. It will spread out the budget and get something I know we are going to buy anyway. I like getting necessary things. We pretty much have the whole kitchen planned out now. Though I am still working on Tom about the stove placement. But I think he sees the picture.

After dinner we went up to the "man cave". Tom says we can't call it the game room as that implies that the children can use it. He had Margaret pick a holiday movie for everyone to watch. She chose "It's A Wonderful Life". You have to watch the DVD. There are so many scenes cut out for commercials on TV that the first time I saw it I didn't recognize half the movie. Margaret hadn't seen it in so many years that it was almost a new movie to her.

Margaret was tired after the movie and went downstairs to unwind. I joined her while the boys watched "Joyeux Noel", another wonderful tragic holiday movie about a WWI Christmas in the trenches.

We took the plastic off the spare mattress and vacuumed the guest room to help Margaret not have an allergy attack due to our pets. She told me she slept well and easy. She had friends coming to stay the next day so we were up early to return her home. Riley went with us but he slept in the back seat most of the way. Margaret's friends were waiting for her when we arrived. I said I couldn't stay as I had a child waiting in my car. I called to Riley to come get introduced and say goodbye to Margaret. He was asleep sprawled across the the seats in the back of the car. He crawled out and stood up. The friends laughed, They thought I had been talking about a young small child when I said I had a child waiting for me in the car. Riley had been hidden from view until he climbed out, almost six feet tall and 16 years old now. He grinned also.

I came home after the drive and slept. I am still fighting that cold. Amazingly, two days later there isn't much left of the feast. The boys, myself, and Tom have made deep inroads into the leftovers.

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