Thanksgiving

Now that New Years is a day away, I thought I'd post our Thanksgiving. Hopefully by Easter I'll get Christmas posted. This year Thanksgiving was at our house. We'd never had it at our house before so I was a bit nervous about getting the food to taste good and all that. I tend to like to talk when my sisters are around and I worried that I might forget about the food cooking. So I made a "duties roster" with assignments for everyone so I could get help and not get off track.





Scott even brought a "Valet Parking" sign from Jackson so we could offer valet parking to our guests. Jake was assigned to be the valet parking attendant. We laughed, though, when we realized all 4 guest's cars fit easily in the driveway.



We only have one living room that doubles as the dining room and family room. So it was funny when the men had to huddle around a little TV amid the tables and no living room furniture. Adam asked, “Is this your only TV?” I said, “Yes, it’s our only TV, but it is our new big one.” They all laughed wondering how small the first one must have been.



Alison was the “wrap taker.” As guests arrived she would say, “May I take your wrap?” Then she would take it to the “wrap room.” At first they thought there was some funky rap thing going on in the bedroom, but then we explained that a “wrap” is whatever you are wearing on the outside, such as a coat, jacket, or sweater.

The turkey was 30 lbs! Maceys said mine was the biggest one there. I had ordered a 27 lb turkey based on the formula they give you depending on the number of guests. But they said they give or take a few lbs. I guess they gave. So Thanksgiving morning Scott said, “Are you sure this will fit in the pan?” Then I wondered, “Oh, and in addition, is the pan going to fit in the oven?” I had bought a new roasting pan to put the turkey in, because we have not ever owned one. But just then it dawned on me that our oven is smaller than most ovens. So Thanksgiving morning was a fine time to think of those things. But luckily the pan said it fits up to a 30 lb turkey. Also, fortunately, the handles on the sides of the pan fold down, so the pan fit in the oven with the handles in the down position. It made it harder to carry it to the oven without handles, but it fit. There was 1/4th inch of space between the turkey’s belly and the top burner and his legs and neck and the sides of the oven. It was a large turkey.



Elaine was the Brussels sprouts cooker and overseer of the microwave. She did the Brussels sprouts and corn in the microwave because all stove burners and oven were in use. We only have two stove burners, so there was competition between the potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn, etc. Jodean was the oven overseer and she put in the rolls and sweet potatoes after the turkey came out. Eileen was the mashed potato masher. The gravy was done by committee. Eileen and Jodean helped decide if I should add more flour-water mixture and if it tasted ok. So you may ask, “Well, DeAnn, what did you do?” I was the delegator. But I was busy getting things on and off the stove and getting the right people their supplies.



Eileen and Camille are doing their duty as the "roll watchers."



Here Alison and Kathrine are displaying the nut cups. They were pine cone turkeys in memory of our 2 pine trees that blew over in the wind a few weeks before Thanksgiving.



In this picture one had already blown over, but the other one went next. Luckily there was no damage to the house. That first one was laying on the roof, but it didn’t do any damage. This is our house from the side view.



I also decided to make order forms for serving pie and ice cream. The kids handed out the order forms and collected them up. Then we made the orders like a fast food restaurant would. We put the order up and the pie and ice cream helpers put on the plate what was ordered. Some of the orders were pretty funny. Jake requested having his face carved in the ice cream and he also wanted chocolate syrup and a cherry on top. I had to tell him that all the special instructions may not be able to be accommodated. However, Alison did carve his face in the ice cream. Daniel said he wanted his ice cream not touching his pumpkin pie, but he did want it to touch his apple pie. I had just plopped on his piece of pumpkin pie as Rachelle read the special instruction “be sure the ice cream is not touching the pumpkin pie.” At that moment it was actually touching… AHHHH!!!… so I quickly moved it away and no one noticed. Whoosh! Katherine made a fake order for Adam. It had all the possible choices circled, including every size of pie slice and amount of scoop of ice cream. I laughed when I saw it because that would be a huge plate with a dollop, small, medium, and large size of each type of ice cream. You might as well combine the scoop sizes. Here is the assembly line up for getting the pie orders served.





Here are the kids tallying the pie orders using pie charts.



Here we are eating dinner.









Planning Black Friday after dinner.



While we planned our Black Friday strategies, the kids were out having fun in the snow (Photo by Rachelle).



Here was a Thompson photo that was taken by Mallory.



Overall, I realized what great sisters and family I have. They were all so willing to help and we accomplished it as a team. It ended up being a very good day.