It's a Zombie life: November 2008

I trust that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year!

The past few Thanksgivings since my parents moved we've been having Thanksgiving with Dennis' family over at our place. Chyrl (mom in-law) usually brings the turkey and we prepare the sides together at my house. It's worked out great because I have this stupid fear of preparing a Turkey. Hey, it is rather intimidating to see all these beautiful birds in magazines and on cooking shows and movies and what not and to then and try to produce something like that!

Well, we got the phone call a week before the big day saying that Dennis' mom had to work. His dad rarely goes anywhere without her and his brother in-law had to work so his sister wasn't feeling up to coming either. So I braved it and invited my brother and his family over along with my Aunt because I knew that if the turkey didn't turn out, they wouldn't hassle me too much. Not to mention Aunt Kathy was bringing a honey baked ham....

So I took all the advice I had from everyone I asked and tried to apply what I could to the turkey. Mom uses season salt on hers, I thought since I was putting fresh herbs and butter between the skin I would just season mine with regular salt. I did take her advice on the turkey bag. Someone told me to turn it upside down so the breast would be tender and juicy, so I did that too. Someone else told me to take the turkey thermometer out and just set the timer so I did...

When it was time to take the turkey out of the oven I thought I was gonna cry! It was hideous! Dennis asked me if I killed it! As soon as I transferred it to the serving dish it fell all apart! I ended up just carving it up and setting it out for everyone to serve themselves. Though I don't have any "pretty" pictures of my bird I have to say I must have done something right because it came out moist and delicious!

The only other disaster was that I wanted to use my grandma's table for the dinner and that didn't go over so well. Dennis was so very sweet and patient with me, first getting it out of the very back of his parent's storage unit. This took an hour because all the other stuff crammed packed in front of it had to be moved out and then back in once he got to the table. He had to clean out the van to stow the seats to make it fit for the ride home. Then we had to round up the chairs! One he had to dig for at school because he had used it for a prop in a play a few years ago, two were in desperate need of a clean up because they had been stored out on the patio of his parent's place. One was easy enough to find in our room while the last two were still in boxes ready to be put together!

So, after a heck of time trying to get it through the door, we got it in the spot I wanted it and I decided it was too small and we needed to put the extra leaf in it. Let's just say there was a reason that grandma never used the extra leaf! In the process of putting the leaf in we busted the braces underneath. Well, this apparently wasn't the first time they were busted because there was plenty of evidence of wood glue that looked about twenty or so years old! Dennis tried repairing the damage but the "hard as nails" glue still wasn't dry almost two days later! So then we tried just using screws and little "L" brackets. Well, we finally got the leaf in and when we put the table upright it sagged in the middle! Dennis was sure it would hold but I could just see putting all my new dishes on it and the trimmings and then the twenty pound turkey.....it could be a disaster!

So needless to say, after all his patience and hard work, he wasn't so thrilled when I asked him to help me carry it back out to the garage!

I got by pairing the chairs with a plastic table. It just meant that dinner was buffet style instead of having it all on the table. But I still think the table setting came out pretty!

I didn't want to "segregate" the children but there just wasn't enough room at the table! They didn't seem to mind though.

I managed to get a quick shot of the girls all dressed up for the occasion. Notice their mouths are full of bread. They couldn't get enough of the bread rolls!

We started the Christmas decorating this afternoon. It took us all day to get motivated because we were all still hung over from turkey enzymes! The house is a wreck with boxes and undecorated trees and what not.

Hopefully we'll get some motivation back tomorrow!

The girls did manage to get their little trees decorated for their rooms. They did them all by themselves and they turned out pretty cute.
Deni did hers all in pink and white to match her sorta shabby chic room.