Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! (Cool turkey, What Exit?!)
So, who else is in the midst of cleaning and cooking? My guests aren’t coming till after 5, so I’ll get some relaxation time, but right now, I’m in the manic clean and cook stage.
I started with the manic cooking phase and got muffins, pie and pumpkin bread into the oven and cleaned up the mess. Now I get to take a break before making stuffing. That won’t take long and they I have hours to do everything else while the turkey cooks. I used to run a shelter where we had to cook 70 turkeys every year and feed 500 people so cooking at home for four is a breeze.
Just to clarify, that is a public domain Ascii Art Turkey, I’m not that creative or at least I didn’t have enough time to make it myself.
We’ve been at it since Saturday. I completed spray bleaching washing all the cabinet front and now my cleaning is at last complete. (Until the clean-up tonight.) My wife is being assisted in the cooking by her Mom, her brother and SIL and our daughter. I’m get to relax and set the tables at about 1pm.
We have 24 for dinner and 26 for desert. This should be fun.
And to everyone sitting around all day in his ratty underwear, forking corn out of the can and swilling Colt .45s while watching the Lions get their asses kicked, I’m sure Jim joins me in wishing you a pleasant day as well!
Pie is cooking, tom awaits his fate in the oven, there are munchies about, and nobody in the house is dressed in anything more formal than sweats and casual shirts.
Apparently, Rick Astley performed the “Never Gonna Let You Down” song at the Macy’s Thanksgiving’s Day Parade. Link here, uncoded, 'cuz no one would believe that I wasn’t just rickrolling him:
Oh, and Jim? I don’t actually drink beer, or malt ales or whatever the hell Colt .45 is, and I haven’t had corn of any kind in a year or so, but I didn’t want to allow someone whose idea that represented of a Thanksgiving Day feast to feel alienated. I eat pretty well, never so well as I do chez toi, but I’m a pretty good cook, if I say so myself.
It is. I laughed just as long, and then had to explain both why I was laughing and the concept of rickrolling to my 93-year-old grandmother and 65-year-old mom, neither of whom are anything close to internet savvy. Of course the whole thing was weird to start out with - when’s the last time anyone sang the theme song to “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”?
Other friends of mine say the joke is officially dead and I’m inclined to agree, but this was a hell of a way to kill it.
Time to go sleep the food coma off and prepare for the holiday season.
I hosted our annual we don’t live around here so have no family around dinner today. Fifteen people showed up. I fried a turkey, baked a ham, made the dressing (we southerners eat cornbread dressing), giblet gravy and collard greens. I also made a Lane Cake. I had never made a cake from scratch before which means I had to pick one that’s a real PITA to make but it turned out good. I did not use the candied cherries cause they’re nasty. Others brought side dishes, the appetizer (warm artichoke dip!), pies and wine. It was a feast.
The turkey fryer is cleaned up as is the kitchen and all the plates, glasses, cups, silverware, etc is washin’ away in the dishwasher.
We’re just about to sit down. We drove from California to St. Louis with a car we’re giving our daughter and her husband. They flew in with a suitcase full of turkey and fixings. We’re flying back, and they’re driving back to NJ. We had perfect weather all the way, good rooms, good dinners, and even had time for some fun. And their plane was on time. So far, perfect, and the turkey smells good also.
This is probably the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had.
Wednesday night we drove 4 hours to Syracuse to see my favorite person – my Aunt Annie – and her delightful husband. We got there about 1am and stayed up talking about our crazy family and sharing McSweeney’s Joke Book of Book Jokes.
The next morning I woke up with absolutely nothing I was required to do, and was introduced to the most magical game since Lemmings, World of Goo. The rest of my day alternated between playing World of Goo, eating ridiculously good turkey with homemade cranberry sauce, and watching Kiki’s Delivery Service. I didn’t even have to get dressed. It was a thing of beauty.
Today I am going to finish three of my applications to graduate school – all I have to do is mail out the transcripts. I will play more World of Goo and then some people are coming over, and there will be a cheese log involved somewhere.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to truly relax like this. I have been putting a lot of extra time at work (that I don’t really get paid for) and wearing myself out between the job and graduate school applications. But for the rest of the weekend I am just here, on the sofa, with three of my best friends (my Aunt, her husband, and my husband.) They are all the family I require.
Do you know what I am truly thankful for? I am an adult no longer living under the tyranny of irrational parents. As such, I wanted homemade pumpkin pie for breakfast and nobody could tell me no. This is truly worthy of gratitude. Adulthood rocks.
Happy day to all. Our dinner went very well, but then there was just the two of us. We sat looking out at about five inches of new snow. My toast to my spouse was that I was thankful that my ancestors were brave enough to come on the Mayflower and create a country so great that it made her ancestors want to come here to live. Otherwise we never would have met.
