Happy Turkey Day

I have to preface this holiday with an explanation. As I mentioned earlier, my mother just had knee-replacement surgery, so the plan was to have Thanksgiving at her house, but only if she promised to not try to do anything and let the rest of us handle it all. I went up on Monday to help her and watch my nieces and to help get things together for the holiday.

When I got there, she informed us all that she had ordered Thanksgiving dinner from a local restaurant which I thought was an excellent idea since we have not had great luck with the turkey in past years and I am certainly not cook. She told us the restaurant would provide turkey breasts, stuffing, vegetables, mashed potatoes, yams, rolls, salad, gravy and pies. She then proceded to tell us all that she had bought a turkey to cook (so we would have the smell of turkey in the house on Thanksgiving), and that she needed to get ingredients for stuffing (to put inside the turkey she was going to cook), potatoes (because hers are the best) and for waldorf salad (which only my dad likes) and green bean casserole (because you can't have Thanksgiving without it). She also said that my sister-in-law would be baking homemade rolls because they are so much better.

Now, I would agree that she makes the most wonderful mashed potatoes, Heidi's rolls are excellent, the smell of turkey is nice and it just can't be called Thanksgiving without green bean casserole, but come on, aren't we defeating the purpose and being a little ridiculous?! First, why did we order it if we are going to still make it ourselves? Second, she promised not to do anything. And Third, who is going to eat all this food?

We were able to talk her out of the stuffing and the potatoes. We had to cook the turkey the night before because of limited refridgerator space, so we did not have the smell on Thanksgiving day after all. It did turn out perfectly, however, I'm sure because we didn't need it for dinner. I made green bean casserole, which is about the extent of my cooking abilities, very easy. And Heidi did bring her rolls. Grammy and Pop also came up from Tucson and brought ginzakraut with them - a traditional favorite of a few of us.

My mom still managed to weasel her way into the kitchen quite a bit that day, which I knew would happen. She just can't help herself from being involved and hated to be completely waited on. All in all, it was a very nice day. But after day 4 of leftovers, I was ready to be done with Thanksgiving for another year.

We played a pictionary game where we drew things we were thankful for. I am very thankful for all the usual things: family, good health, shelter, etc. But most of all, I am thankful that, especially in these hard economic times, we are fortunate enough to be able to help others. And, right now, I am very thankful that the temperature is in the 70's where I live! It really is the most wonderful time of year!