November 28, 2008
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The Morning After
We had such a blessed Thanksgiving. We really did. The company and food were good. The weather was cool enough for me to step out the back door to cool off when the kitchen became too stuffy and hot.
Rissy was my right hand (and sometimes my left!!!) helper. She made the preparation so much easier on me this year! I continued with a painful low back ache and I think it would have been much worse if Rissy hadn’t done so much to help me. She ran to the garage pantry, garage refrigerator, & garage freezer numerous times to fetch things. She made several of the food items all by herself. What a trooper!
I’ll start with pictures of our day. Warning! There are a lot!
Rissy made Auntie Louise’s Pink Goo with only a few of my verbal instructions. She has her own recipe card, now.
I pricked holes in the sweet potatoes before baking them and Rissy grabbed the camera when Chirper wanted to see what I was doing. He didn’t TOUCH – just watched, as he does most everything!.
He’s on Rissy’s step stool.
Rissy made the stuffing almost totally by herself. I helped a bit with the measurement of spices (I eye ball – have no explicit amounts) and I was very proud of her reaching into the turkey to take out the bags of neck bone and giblets! I had to rinse the bird, since it was so heavy (24 lbs), but she stuffed it.
A smiling and content cook. Her presence in the kitchen while cooking looks VERY natural to me!
We got the turkey in the oven, but only after lowering the rack REALLY *L-O-W* because of the huge size of the bird! Even with the lower rack, the turkey almost touched the top of the oven – and I have a HUGE oven!
I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but is that rack bowing downward????
I did something different this year. I cut out different colors of paper leaves and each person was given four leaves. On the back, they were asked to write something they were thankful for this year. The leaves were then placed on the table as part of the decorations.
I finished eating and read “the leaves” while others were finishing their plates. We tried to guess whose leaf I was reading. Some of the “thankful’s” were touching – Luci: “I’m grateful I was adopted.” and some were funny – Tango (our cocktiel) “I’m grateful for the Andy Griffith show” (she loves to whistle the theme music!). It made the table pretty and made everyone appreciate each other. It was such a hit, I was asked to read them a second time.FINALLY, the turkey was done and the finishing touches were going on with only a few things.
I served from the kitchen, rather than clutter the table, and only placed salads, olives, and rolls on the table.Here are pictures of some of us during dinner.
Stephanie is still seperated from Rob, but we invited him anyway because we like him!
And, here are my own Porky Pig plates of food!!! A little bit of everything!
I made two pumpkin pies (no energy to make chocolate pie or anything else). Cookies or pie was the dessert..
Such “innocent” faces!The little girls and I are the only ones who ate dessert.
And what good is dessert without good conversation???!!!
Poor, shy Rissy!!! She needs to come out of her “shell” and be more expressive, don’t you think???!!!!I think Tango was also grateful for the fact she wasn’t a turkey!!
Stephanie had to meet up with friends, so she left and left JanaLyn to spend the night. She picked her up this morning around 9:15am.
I used to be that skinny!!!!That left “yours truly” to do the clean up. Guess who was the first to spring to action??? Rissy, of course! Fortunately, all the other “littles” (including JanaLyn) copied Rissy’s actions and dishes were quickly removed from the table, leaving only drippy candles, crumbs, and some “pink goo” stains on the table cloth.
The kitchen was another story. I sent Rob home with leftovers and made a set of leftovers for Stephanie to pick up this morning when she came for JanaLyn. I got the dishwasher loaded & started. I left the crystal and sterling (hand washables) and some large pans to be washed today. The turkey roasting pan was left to soak over night. I ran out of steam QUICKLY and SUDDENLY.
At least the stove area was cleaned and washed before my body protested, “NO MORE!!!”
And this was what I said “good-night” to when I turned out the kitchen light and headed to my bed.
Rissy’s art work on the refrigerator.
I’ll post family pictures tomorrow. I think that’s enough pictures for one post!!
My To Do List:
* Finish dishes
* Go to the vet to pick up tape worm medicine for Chirper (just found/saw them Thursday morning)
* Maybe put up garland & lights in the doorways
* If I put up garland, the washing machine will be free of bins and I can start laundry (!!!!) (oh thrill)
* Figure out what to fix for dinner, maybe spaghettiNot too cumbersome of a list and, I didn’t write it down, but, I’m thinking of watching “Little Women” with the girls after we return from the vet’s office!
Be blessed ~
Comments (4)
Thats looks like a great day!
What a wonderful day!! I’m picking up the ingrediants for that “Pink Goo” today and going to give it a try. I think it will look nice alongside our “Green Goop” on the Christmas dinner table–very festive! Rissy looks like a natural in the kitchen. The picture of all your little “innocents” in a row is adorable!
I know that “quick and sudden” zap of energy–it’s so final and I can’t move myself one more step!
Hope you get a chance to watch that movie–I love Little Women. Have a blessed day!
p.s. I kind of expected to see Chirper sitting at the table as he seems to join in on everything else!
I absolutely love your Thanksgiving Day Report!
Rissy and Hannah have much in common! Hannah stayed in the kitchen ALL day helping and didn’t complain once. She is a BIG help to me!
Looks like everyone was picture perfect! What a beautiful spread you had!
Oh, my! Beautiful and picture perfect.