This Thanksgiving is a bit odd. We didn’t get in our car. We barely left our house. We didn’t pack any bags. We didn’t see any airplanes. We stayed at home and enjoyed a home grown day.
The alarm went off at 6:30am. My snooze mechanism has been derailed since having Sara and I couldn’t go back to sleep. Despite the early rising, we were slow to get started. We enjoyed Elmo and Zaboomafoo in bed. Sara’s getting very good at tickling, so morning snuggles are more active now.
Jon and Claire agreed to cook turkey, gravy, and pies if we filled in the gaps. Mom started a Cooking Light tradition with Riesling fruit jello, sausage mushroom stuffing, honey sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce. The jello takes 4 hrs to set so that was the first priority.
Wayne started working on that after breakfast while I dressed Sara. I decided to give her a bath before I dressed her. We were having a wonderful time splashing around until she pooped! Clean up on aisle 6. 30 minutes later…tensions were a little higher and the jello proved complicated.
Eventually, we muddled through the cooking. By noon, Sara went down for nap and I joined her. I was in a better mood after that. J&C came over for a light lunch. The jello got poured into a mold of the brain (birthday present from David). Smells of browning sausage, poultry seasoning, maplewood bacon, and honey wafted through the house.
By 2:30pm we were starving. It felt like the first time that day I wasn’t rushing around doing anything. So we packed up food, toys, and kid and headed 6 block north to Jon & Claire’s. The turkey was being basted every 20min and looked like it got a tan in Arizona. What a beautiful bird. Alas, it was being coy. I was another 2 hrs before we ate. Two pies sat tantalizingly on the counter.
We played Mexican train. Wayne was a noble father and let his daughter play with all his dominos making it difficult for him to use them. Claire won. It was a relaxing time interrupted by occasion cooking tasks. We all would gather in the kitchen and watch whoever was at work. We hovered and hoped to dine.
Eventually, the table was set. Claire’s china and my Grandmother’s silver. What a nice meal. The jello tasted like wine, the stuffing had a nice taste, the turkey was moist, the rolls were dense, potatoes heavenly sweetness, and pies still not eaten.
While we were cleaning up, Sara took to tickling everyone. It garnered much laughter. We progressed desert to our house so we could put Sara to bed. Now it’s my turn.
