Thanksgiving was its usual day full of craziness and peace--and dishes, lots of dishes! We got a late start on our cooking since I neglected to borrow a roasting pan from my mom, and the box of cornmeal for muffins was full of bugs. So I sent Grant to the store for cornmeal while calling my mom and dad. They didn't answer. I left a plaintive message. Grant called from the store to see if I got a hold of them and then he went to their house while I left another plaintive message. He called me to say no one answered the door and their car was gone. A total mystery! So he went back to the store and bought one of those aluminum roasting pans and a rack.
Meanwhile, I prepped the celery and onions for the stuffing and then started vacuuming the family room. When Grant got back home, I was on the floor with a screwdriver and the vacuum cleaner torn apart. The belt was broken. I put on the new belt, reassembled the vacuum cleaner, washed my hands, and proceeded to get the cornmeal muffins mixed and into the tin and oven. Then while they were cooking we got the bird ready. Did I mention it was still frozen when we took it out of the fridge that morning? That had necessitated getting out the picnic cooler and putting the bird in cold water, changing it out every 20-30 minutes for about an hour and a half. Anyway, now completely defrosted, Ms. Turkey got washed, dried, stuffed and slathered in butter and into the hot oven forthwith, about an hour later than planned. Oh well!
Then came the mad rush to finish cleaning and prepping. Sometime during this whirlwind my parents called back to say they were not home because they had been doing a self-assigned weekly community chore wherein they take trash bags, "grabbers", and rubber gloves and pick up all the garbage that thoughtless, careless, lazy people leave on the sidewalk behind the houses on their block. Their back wall is on a busy street across from the Community College so there is lots of traffic both auto and foot every day of the week, and no regular city cleaning of the sidewalks.
Meanwhile, Grant washed dishes for the second time, vacuumed the living room, we moved furniture out of the living room and Grant set up the folding table and chairs while I went up and down the stairs multiple times to get the boxes of dishes. Subsequently I decided to iron tablecloths and picked two. An hour later I had one tablecloth and 12 napkins done but had to take a break before getting the last one done. Son Nick came in about that time and handed me a shirt to iron for him. Grant decided the turkey was done--an hour early--and took it out of the oven. Then we decided it wasn't done enough at only 180 degrees and he put it back in the oven alongside the casserole of extra stuffing . I rushed through a shower and getting ready and then madly ran about decorating the tables until company started arriving. I had to excuse myself to put my face on, then ran back down to get the appetizers prepped, side dishes finished and platters and serving pieces assembled....while people continued to arrive and bring things that needed to be put places, and of course greetings and drinks. DD Elaine brought the ham all cooked and helped me bunches by prepping for a salad and making the mashed potatoes.
Finally everything was ready and the 10 of us sat down to turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, ham, broccoli salad, fruit salad, and cornmeal muffins. I sat at a table with my son and daughter, and son in law Chris, who said he refused to sit at the adult table :) Later there was pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and Dutch apple pie, yum yum. Lots of chatting and laughter throughout, and glasses raised to the chefs. It is our habit to enjoy our guests and leave the cleanup til later. Since Grant had already had two shifts on washing by hand, plus two times filling the dishwasher, it was my turn to wash. We turned up the music, got the leftovers put away and cleaned up the kitchen. Another successful holiday party! Tell me, do your parties start like ours?
.JPG)
