Recovery

Spouse & I had a wonderful, drama-free Thanksgiving with our family!

Typically I am mostly involved with the pre-Thanksgiving preparations (ie: house cleaning, setting the table, etc.) but Spouse had been having back pain for several days, so I took a much more active role in the preparation of the meal this year, and I liked it!

We prepared the turkey together on Wed evening. Spouse makes an herb butter and slides it and lemon slices between the skin and turkey so they flavor the meat as it cooks. He also puts celery, onion, lemon and granny smith apples inside the turkey for flavor. When it finished cooking we let it come up to room temperature, then covered it in foil and put it in the fridge overnight. The family arrived, we talked until 1:00 am, then finally went to bed.

On Thurs Spouse & I made our famous dressing. Its made with bread cubes, chicken stock, onions, lots of fresh herbs, granny smith apples, golden raisins, pecans and dried cranberries. It is to die for!

I made a corn casserole and sweet potato shuffle (without the crushed corn flakes), then placed the mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and green bean casserole in the oven to warm that Spouse's sister Mary had brought. Meanwhile, the turkey was warming up in the roaster. Spouse used the turkey drippings to make dynamite gravy and I baked the biscuits and cooked the peas. We had a ton of food! But everything was ready at nearly the same time, which is a feat unto itself.

We sat down for our 1st Thanksgiving dinner at 3:00, and it was dee-lish! Then we hung out for a few hours, then ate our 2nd Thanksgiving dinner at 6:00, then had pumpkin and apple pies at 8:00. I was still too full to eat pie.

On Fri we pulled all the left overs out and ate Thanksgiving dinner for lunch. We had pizza for dinner.

The family left at noon today. I made some more biscuits and Spouse & I had Thanksgiving left overs again for dinner tonight. We're now out corn casserole, sweet potato shuffle, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and green bean casserole. I think we'll eat left over turkey and dressing once more, tomorrow, and then the rest will go into the freezer for another day.

We had a really nice time together. Its kind of amazing how much 'better' the boys (Spouse's 11 and 13 year old nephews) were this year over last year. They're not bad boys at all, but they tend to get excited and very loud. Last year I had to retreat from the hysteria at one point, but this year I didn't. The 8 of us spent 3 whole days together and really enjoyed it.

But I must admit that it is nice to have our quiet house back to ourselves again. Over the last 4 days I must have filled, run, and emptied the dishwasher at least 5 times, and wiped up the counters at least a dozen times. The kitchen is clean, the house is quiet, and I'm returning to my natural state.

Tomorrow Spouse & I are going to put up white lights on our wrap around porch and assemble our artificial (but very life-like) Christmas tree. Spouse will likely lose interest about 1/2 way through the tree assembly, leaving me to complete it and string it with lights, but I don't care. I love doing it so I don't mind if he doesn't stick with me until its done. Then each night next we'll add decorations until we've gotten all 300+ ornaments on the tree and it looks as if it couldn't hold 1 more.

Here's a tip: plug your lights into a timer. The timer will turn your lights on and off for you every night, whether you're at home or not! This goes for your Christmas tree and your outside lights.

Crush du Jour: Chris Russell