For the love of stuffing!

Well, we had an excellent Thanksgiving, thanks for asking. At first I thought it might be a little depressing to be away from family and not get together with friends, but in the grand scheme of the stress and activities in our life, we decided to lie low for the day. We played Cranium together and if you've ever played an older kid/adult game with kids ranging in age from 2 to 40, you know it will a. take a loooong time, b. require you to look through the boxes of questions for those that they will understand (no, they don't listen to Quiet Riot, thank gawd. And Zach didn't know what a pipe dream is,.. hmmm,.. does that mean spoiled?)

They thoroughly enjoyed it, as did we, the parents. But of course I knew I would from the moment the 9 year old asked me if I'd ever been to Hooters, to gauge whether I would successfully be able to answer a question. (He had to draw a picture of buffalo wings, if you were wondering.)

I finally figured it out: you do all your shopping the morning before with five kids hanging off the cart like flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz, and me, well, I'm the wicked witch of the west. "YOU, my pretty!" I screech as we careen down the main aisle toward the dairy products. "Dispatch and bring me a bag of marshmallows AND NOT THE MINI KIND!" I cackle and push the little creature off the cart with my gnarled finger. If he wants a ride home he'll find me before I check out.

We get home and cook/bake all the side dishes and desserts the DAY BEFORE! Why did it take me 39 years to realize the beauty of this scheme? Oh, and having an 11 year old who loves to bake helps. A lot. And having friends come over to help stir bacon frying in butter while you drink decaf green tea (do you think enough anti oxidants to stave off the artery clogging fats of the stuffin in that cup? Any bit helps, right?)

So the day of was nice and relaxed; game playing; a nice run about an hour before the turkey was scheduled to fly out of the oven (it's all in the psychology folks!), amazing dinner and a Christmas movie. We watched Fred Klaus and I highly recommend it and we will be watching the movie as punishment every time a boy comes into the house telling me how much they don't like brother A or B. Someday maybe it'll sink in.

As usual, the holiday in pictures!

You're never to young to learn about what your dinner time poultry looks like before it becomes a dinosaur shaped nugget. She was a little scared of the featherless beast, since at 17 pounds, it was almost as big as she is.

Then you have to get the attention of your tweener - he almost licked the turkey neck for $5. I know, not the role model I should be. Jared: don't do stuff becuase people dare you! Have a mind of your own. Love, mom.

I'd say by the stiff smiles on their faces, they really aren't too sure about this turkey dinner thing

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Is dinner ready yet?

Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands; Sophie has decided to cook dinner too.

She likes things spicy!

But, check it out! No special filters were used to enhance the buttery brown color of this turkey. I've come a long way from relearning how to use my convection oven after a year hiatus in Indonesia with a cook stove and a toaster oven.

NOW she'll take credit - Sabrina, my fair weather daughter.....

The master carver,..

The required stuffing - Rob's mom's. 2 pounds of bacon and a slab o' butter! Good stuff,.. I can't wait until next year,..

The gang, literally, waiting for the gunshot so they can dig in,..

Worth the two days of cooking, believe me,..

Kyle thinks so too,..

Sabrina preferred to play peek-a-boo with the big napkins instead of actually eating anything,..

Jared made these yummy Reese's "because I'm Zach and I hate anything that is normally meant to be eaten - please accomodate me" cup cookies.



The second course - apple pie and reese's cookies. I also tortured the children by making everyone write one nice thing that they are thankful for about each person in the family and we put them in the little bags. Some of the bags have paper hands on them - I meant to have them create turkeys out of them; there's always next year, right? We took turns reading why everyone was thankful for us between bites of dessert.

Happy Thanksgiving!