Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I Survived Thanksgiving 2008!

I'm sure you are wondering why I used the title I did to post about my Thanksgiving day, well, you asked, so here goes.....

As a Thanksgiving tradition, the night before I call Mom and talk Turkey! The conversation always includes....Are you sure you don't have to get up at 5 a.m. to put that bird in? "Mom", I say, "it's not 1950!! We have Turkey Bags! My turkey will be done in about 4 hours!" (You also have to know that I am not a morning person, AND, I have been having Thanksgiving for about 4 years now!)

Turkey bags....a great invention to eliminate all that basting, and messy turkey juice, etc. from getting burnt to the pan. Well, not this Thanksgiving!!! Here is that little bugger....all nestled in the bag, safely in the oven.

Here I have the table all ready for the 11 people I will be serving today. If you look real hard to the back of the picture, you will see the "kiddie table" - a fixture in most homes for this holiday!

And here is hubby, smellin' that bird cooking and reading the paper - waiting, patiently, licking his choppers to dig in to a Thanksgiving feast....little did he know.....

...that the rest of the day would turn out like this....

First, when my sister arrived with hubby and the triplets, Alan decided to go and help. Jan made the pumpkin pies.....and made a mistake by giving them to Alan to carry up the steps.....Yep, he tripped UP the steps, cracking a tin pie plate and skinning a knee! Jan's mood wasn't the greatest after that because her pie got cracked.

Next, after checking the turkey, I noticed a little smoke in the oven. Hmmm, I looked and figured it was a leftover crumb from another meal burning at the bottom of the oven. It was almost time for Mr. Turkey to be done, so I checked him again.....then realized the BAG WAS LEAKING!! Juices were flowing down to the oven bottom. So Sis said, "poke a hole in it and it will drain in the pan." Little did we know that that sucker was stuffed in the pan so tight that the juice filled the back end of the pan, then REALLY overflowed in the oven. Smoke alarms were wailing, windows were thrown open and luckily, my neighbors didn't call the fire department! We all had smoke inhalation....then Mom and Dad arrived - GREAT!!

After all this drama, the turkey was done - and not burnt! The smoke disapated with the help of ceiling and portable fans, and dish towels being flapped. Then we all gathered together for a good turkey dinner.

During dinner, Alan spilled an enourmous cup of pop on the table, soaking Mom, tablecloth and all! Will the bad karma end? No!

Everyone had gone home, now was cleanup. It was time to CLEAN the oven. Thank goodness for self-cleaning ovens....but I could have went without all the smoke it delivered again through the house - can I win????

Then, I loaded the dishwasher. Luckily, the dishwasher soap was under the sink. As I grabbed a cupful, I looked and thank goodness I did. The "T" under the sink that connects BOTH drains and the drain to the dishwasher DISCONNECTED! How? Who knows!What mess would I have had if I ran the dishwasher - whew!!! There was still a little water from the rinsing I did prior, so what a time to clean out under the sink - right? Geese, can I win??!!

After all that I was still thankful! No broken bones, no squished pies, no burnt turkey, no house fire, no flood, and no food poisoning....just a normal traditional family dinner....probably just like yours!

....next, it's my sister's turn - she's having Christmas Eve, and I'll be carrying the food!LOL!!

Thanks for stopping to read this long journal entry that seemed to never end.

Until tomorrow friends....

3 comments:

Lorie said...

Oh, geeze Bev. Even though you had some problems your turkey still turned out and you should be proud of yourself! :o)

Vicki Chrisman said...

lol... OH my gosh.. I know I shouldnt laugh..but the way you tell it ..it's just funny! I thought sure that it was the turkey that got sacrificed. I saw that pic of the bird in the oven.. and though that it was going to be the problem.
I bet you put your feet up at the end of that day huh? lol
Thanks for sharing that story,. it was a great way to start my day.
Sorry for getting a chuckle at your expense freind! lol

Kudzu said...

LOL...I'm not laughing AT you, I'm laughing WITH you :D
We decided Sunday before Thanksgiving would be the best time to take out our 22lb. turkey we were going to roast. Good thing we checked Sunday, because we didn't know it, but our freezer had quit working, I don't know when, but long enough for everything to thaw out! The 22lb'er was completely thawed on the outside, but had some crystals inside it. The 12lb.'er we had for frying was already totally thawed, so Sunday we had a roast turkey! Monday I had time to think about it, and said the 22lb.'er had to be roasted as well, and the DH(HossFly) had to go buy replacement turkeys. Did I mention the frozen containers of shrimp gumbo in the freezer? Oh, yeah...nice! By the time Thanksgiving came everyone had already been eating turkey for breakfast,lunch and dinner for a couple days. So when we sat down for the holiday meal, needless to say, it was barely touched..a couple thin slices of breast, and a couple slices of dark meat! No one ate any that night or the next day, so then the fridge's little freezer got stuffed with about 60 lb.s of turkey. This week, I made turkey soup in my biggest cafeteria size pot with parts of three sets of turkey bones..and I only used half! It also had generous portions of turkey meat from a couple gallon sized baggies I'd stored it in.
And...we still had to bake a 8 and 1/2 lb. ham!
That got cut up and stored in the fridge's freezer,too,along with the ham bone for butter beans later. Everybody pretty much just wanted to eat Captain Crunch at each meal after that!
You want some turkey soup? turkey pot pie? a turkey sandwich?? LOL
I can't wait til Christmas!
Kudzu