HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
I hope my fellow Americans are enjoying a great Turkey Day! And good eating to you all!!
Today is a quiet Thanksgiving around here. Just the four of us. I’m sure we’ll get in a rousing game of Guitar Hero III, a screening of Live Free or Die Hard (only $14.00 at the grocery store yesterday), lots of cooking, a little baking, way too much food because I don’t know how to make a Thanksgiving dinner for less than 8 people, and a visit to a neighbor’s house for dessert this evening.
I don’t confess to being the smartest dress in the shop, the sharpest tool in the shed, the brightest bulb in the box, etc., but neither am I a complete dunce. My problem is I’m like a neon bulb. It starts out slow but once it’s had time to warm up is bright. So I guess that means I’m not the quickest grayhound in the park.
All that is to say I had a great idea after it was too late. I had enough grocery store points to get a free turkey so I figured I’d get the smallest one they had since it’s just the four of us. The smallest turkey I could find was 15.5 pounds. That’s a lotta bird for a little family. After thawing it out I realized I should have just thrown it in the freezer and bought a turkey breast for today.
See what I mean? Great idea. Just too late to execute it.
A conversation with the family the other day:
Me: Since it’s just going to be the four of us we probably need to cut out some of the food. So what do we want?
FM1: Well you can’t have Thanksgiving dinner without turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn.
FM2: And it wouldn’t be the same without green bean casserole.
FM3: Ooo! And you have to make the sweet potato casserole!
FM2: Yeah! And cranberry sauce! I love cranberry sauce on my turkey!
Me: I have to have stuffing, too.
FM1: I’m good with just the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn.
FM3: Hey! Can you make peas this year, too? I like peas and we never have them.
Me: Okay. So that’s turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, stuffing and now peas. We haven’t left anything out. And now you want peas! It’s just the four of us!
FM3: But it wouldn’t be right to cut anything out.
FM1: I’ll be happy with just the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn.
FM2: I don’t think you can cut anything out, Mom. It would be wrong.
Me: Fine. I’ll make all of it and we’re going to eat it for days, even if the thought of it will make us sick. No whining if you puke!
Usually we’ll eat around 4:00 or so and snack up until that time if we get hungry. But since it’s just us I’m hoping to eat around 1:00 or maybe 2:00 so we’ll have longer to eat. An afternoon of grazing, if you will.
And then I’ll make a dutch apple pie to take to the neighbors. I had planned on making a pumpkin pie, but they’re already going to have two.
My big dilemma now is where do we eat? Do we eat in the dining room like we always do for special dinners? If so that means I need to get in there and dust. Very sad. Or should we just eat at the K-Mart Special table? Do I put all the food onto my platters and bowls and such and place them on the table? If so we have to eat in the dining room. Or do we just serve ourselves from the stove and eat at the little table? I dunno. I guess we’ll wing it.
Let’s talk about Christmas decorations for a minute, shall we? I used to wait to decorate until December. But then all the neighbors would be decorating over the Thanksgiving weekend and it really is more convenient that way. So the other day I had the kids pull up all the Christmas stuff from the basement and it’s now scattered all over the living room.
Confession time. I had my reconstruction last year on December 29th. I was in the hospital for five days and then was basically an invalid for another six weeks or so. My in-laws were here and my mother-in-law and the kids took down all the Christmas decorations for me and placed them in the basement. She didn’t want to mess up my system so they just laid everything nicely on the floor with the belief that I would eventually box it all up just so and put it away the way I wanted to. Very thoughtful, if you ask me. But I never did. It’s all been sitting on the floor since January. This year I’ll get it all put up right, though!
Again – I hope all of you who are celebrating Thanksgiving have a wonderful day. And for those of you who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you recognize all you have to be thankful for anyway!
I have a wonderful wife who takes care of her family very well. She is an awesome cook (when she sticks to the recipe and doesn’t “free-wheel” it!).BTW – I am FM1 :-)Todd
I have a wonderful wife who takes care of her family very well. She is an awesome cook (when she sticks to the recipe and doesn’t “free-wheel” it!).BTW – I am FM1 :-)Todd
I would be very happy with the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn, too 🙂 And maybe a roll or two 🙂
LOL on the Turkey Breast…I did the same dadgum thing!Because it was just the four of us this year, Jeff wanted “Lumberjack” potatoes (instead of mashed), but Jericho said “You gotta have mashed potatos with Thanksgiving…” but seeing our faces said, “Or not. I guess we could try something…different.”Which was good, because we’d already shredded the potatoes and mixed them with everything, lol.Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Jenster!
Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your day as you remember His many blessings.I’m a firm believer that Thanksgiving isn’t Thanksgiving without all the food. ‘Course my mom still hosts Thanksgiving so I don’t have to prepare everything. ;-)I haven’t even begun to think about Christmas yet. I sang at my first Christmas banquet of the season last night but still…nothing. I can’t seem to ‘get in the spirit.’ I’m thinking I need to just do it; dig out those decorations from their dusty corner and put a little holiday cheer in our home. The boys have been asking to set up the tree so maybe in a week or two I’ll get around to it. Anyways, I think I’ll dig out my Christmas CDs and start putting them on my iPod so their handy.
I thought about you today as I was watching kiddo play Guitar Hero. My fingers hurt just watching it. I haven’t tried to play it, though. My hand/eye coordination just is not up to what it would take to play this game.Happy Thanksgiving!
Todd is nuts. I NEVER stick to the recipe!! The only time I really run into trouble is when I sort of make stuff up. But I would never do that for a major holiday!!Swishy – We had rolls, too!! :o)Becky – Lumberjack potatoes sounds yummy!! But I had to do the mashed potatoes because the boys like to do potatoes, turkey, corn and gravy. And this year peas.Shauna – I’ve been thinking about putting all my Christmas music on my iPod, too. I need to do something!!Dev – You never know if you don’t try!! lol
I hope you went casual. I love all the food, I just wish it could all be casual. Since we had Christmas last year we got to eat dinner in our PJs. Mom and Dad didn’t but the rest of us did!I told Bob to be prepared for my mom to have a ‘formal dress Christmas’. Bob’s reply was – we’ll go to *my* family’s house. Perfect!Poor Bob doesn’t get a choice – it’s Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and corn (for him as I don’t eat it) and rolls. I only eat other vegetables when someone else makes them. Other than that, I don’t have enough burners to make the time ;)Your day sounds like it was going to be awesome – hope you had fun!CindyS
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, making many special memories (for future blog posts of course *G*) Take care 🙂
My Christmas decorations don’t come out until the calendar says ‘December’. The season is long enough as it is…
Amen Trish. I refuse to acknowledge that there is such a thing as Christmas until after Thanksgiving. 1/12th of a year is long enough to celebrate. Even for just the 4 of you I’d set up the formal dining room. (you don’t have to dust) That is what makes it a special meal. My family is just the 5 of us and to make it a special dinner we do all the food and put it on the table even though we eat dinner together every day. (or rather did before I got married)
Oh Jenster, I just LOVE your posts. This one made me smile, as usual. Where did you end up eating – the kitchen or the dining room?We put our Christmas decorations up Thanksgiving weekend too. It’s just easiest that way. When I was little, my mom wouldn’t let us put up the tree until December 17th because my brother’s birthday is 12/16 and she didn’t want anything to take away from his birthday. Such a sweet thought!