Prev/Next


Fun for the whole Family:
www.fojin.com

"No, It's a vicious lie!"






Archives:

2014-Today
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002

November 27, 2015 - 12:10 a.m.
"thanksgiving day success" or "fiddle fever"

Hey Journal!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Well, I won't keep you in suspense for too long.... I am happy to report that our turkey preparation went excellently and everything was perfect!

Dan and I got up around 9:30 and we recorded the parade so that we could watch it when we got a chance during the day. We missed the first half hour and we never saw one of our favorite things from the parade each year, Pilgrim Man and Woman! We don't know if they weren't in the parade or if they were just on in the part that we didn't see!

So, as soon as we got up we started working on the turkey. It had been sufficiently defrosted in the refrigerator over the past few days and it was ready to be cooked! We took out our special butter mix and I let it soften up a little while Dan took the wrapper off the turkey and started to separate the skin from the bird! Such a weird recipe!

Then, I cut the butter into little coin shaped pieces and Dan put them in! Once that was done I started working on the inside ingredients. We put the lemon slices, herbs, and onion pieces inside and then popped it into the oven at 11:30!

After that we prepared a lot of the other foods for the dinner and put them aside until it was almost time to eat. The most stressful times were getting the turkey ready in the morning and then the final half hour. Once we took the turkey out of the oven we had to start cooking everything else and time it so that they were all ready at about the same time and were all still hot!

While the turkey was in the oven we watched the parade and caught up on what we had missed. I can't imagine watching that parade live on TV, there so much junk and I love being able to fast-forward through to the somewhat interesting parts! There really weren't that many famous faces on the floats this year... I think the biggest names were Shawn Mendes and Mariah Carey but that was it!

When Santa arrived at the end of the parade his movements were so strange! The way he waved and popped around was so unusual! We were cracking up at it!

After the first hour and then once every twenty minutes, we had to baste the turkey. Our recipe didn't say anything about covering it with foil but we vaguely remembered doing that last time so we did it. I think it was a good move. I had to remove the foil each time and then use the baster to keep it moist and juicy! lol

A little after 2:00 my mom arrived and then Dan's parents came around 2:15. We hung out and had some appetizers and waited for dinner to be ready. It was a beautiful day out and we had the back door open for most of the day. We could have had our dinner outside like the Pilgrims!

At about 4:30, Dan's dad cut the turkey and we were finishing up preparing all of the other stuff. The mashed potatoes came out really good, too. We made SOOO many, though! We have tons of leftover mashed potatoes but I am going to make sure I eat a lot of them!

I filled up my plate and after all of that work, I wasn't even able to finish it! I didn't have much to eat at all today -- just a little egg platter and some orange juice that Dan had gotten from the deli this morning. I couldn't believe that after not eating much all day and running around preparing everything, I wasn't more hungry!

I always say this but our Thanksgiving meal took ALL DAY to prepare and we ran around like crazy to get it all together and then, in about 15 minutes, it was done!

As soon as dinner was over I was EXHAUSTED. And no, it wasn't the tryptophan.... I didn't eat enough turkey for that! I don't know what it was but it hit me and I was about to fall asleep. My mom did the dishes and that was a big help... we didn't have to worry about that later.

We had so many things to dry at once that we hung them all from the pot/pan rack in the kitchen! It was ridiculous!

We had dessert after that... Dan's parents brought a pie and my mom made cupcakes. I don't like pie, so I had a couple of cupcakes.... they were really good. They were actually probably the best cupcakes my mom has ever made and she said she tried a new mix and followed the direction exactly from the back of the box. Now I know what mix I'll have to get next time!

Everyone hung out for a little while longer and then Dan's parents said they were going to depart at about 8:30. Since they were going, my mom hit the road as well. It seemed like it was early for the party to be breaking up but I guess it really was a good time for everyone to go. Dan and I straightened up a little around the house and then we wanted to DO something.

We didn't know what, exactly... we were kinda tired... but we didn't want to just go to bed, either!

We invited Kristen over for a "night cap" and she gladly accepted. She came over about 30 minutes later and we sat on the couch and had some drinks and relaxed after a successful Thanksgiving day!

Oh, and that reminds me.... earlier in the day I wanted to put on some music so I set up my speaker and I decided to use Pandora. I wasn't quite sure what music was traditional for Thanksgiving but I searched and they had a "Thanksgiving Radio" station!

At first it was playing some Frank Sinatra stuff and a lot of older music. Mixed in, there were a lot of "fiddle" music sounds that sounded very colonial and pilgrimish! I loved those! Later on, when Kristen came over I switched to all fiddle music and it was amazing.... I love that kind of colonial times music! It's excellent!

We hung out until about 12:00 and now we're off to bed!

Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)