Thanksgiving, Chapter 2

Before I continue the Thanksgiving story, I'd like to insert a story that happened this morning at 2am. The suitcase from last week was unpacked, but still sitting in the floor. When our "precious" puppy began to whine at 2am, my amazing husband dutifully got up and let him out. On his way back to bed, he stumbled on the suitcase and almost his his head on the corner of the dresser. The sound startled me awake and I shouted, "Are you okay mom?" He mumbled something about the stupid suitcase and almost getting killed and came back to bed. As we drifted back to sleep I began re-telling the story to myself so I could blog about it. In that suspension between awake and asleep, I thought it was the most hilarious story ever! I was convinced that people would read this blog, laugh until they fell out of their chairs, and send it to their friends. It would be the blog that made me famous! (You know what stage of the awake-asleep continuum I'm talking about here, don't you? The stage where you are amazingly brilliant and think thoughts such as, "My nose itches - I should have it surgically altered!") Somehow in the light of day, the story doesn't seem as comical or as fame-inducing. (It was slightly amusing when my sweet husband tripped over the suitcase again this morning with all the lights on! Don't ask me why it hasn't been put back in the closet yet. It's one of those things we'll never understand...)
Now then - back to Thanksgiving. If you'll recall - no sleep, bladder infection, doctor, drugs, industrial dye, glowing pee. Now that you're caught up:
Let's back track a few hours here... As we were getting ready to leave to pick up my prescription at the only pharmacy open in the entire city, my sister peeked in the oven to get a better whiff of the delicious turkey aroma. That's when she realized the oven was filled with smoke that was quickly billowing out into the kitchen. A few frantic yelps for help brought dad (and three dogs) skidding into the kitchen to investigate. Turns out we didn't do so well at our foil wrapping this year and the broth was spilling out of the seams and landing on the bottom of the oven instead of in the pan we wanted it in. Thus, smoke. A little bit of careful maneuvering and all was well once again!
After our fun filled trip to Walgreens for medicine, we came back and hit the ground running on preparations. Well, D.J. hit the ground running. I kind of crept around carefully and made lots of bathroom trips. Luckily, the industrial dye did it's job rather quickly and I was feeling better within a few hours. We cooked up a storm in that tiny little kitchen! Sweet potato casserole, dressing, the rather large (and somewhat smokey) turkey, green bean casserole, broccoli and rice casserole, Monkey bread, cranberry sauce, cranberry salad, gravy, etc. The list goes on and on!
We dug out the China, the crystal, and the silver. As we polished and set out the spoons, we realized that we only had 8 place settings of silver and crystal glasses and nine people were arriving in less than an hour. So, we tucked a set of regular silverware and a boring glass in the stack and went on our way. When my uncle and cousins arrived, we learned that one of their girlfriend's would be arriving momentarily. We dove back into the China cabinet (which isn't a China cabinet at all - it's more like the top shelf of a closet full of games) and returned victorious with another plate. The silver and crystal were no where to be found, so D.J. and I ended up with the boring, every day stuff. Good thing it doesn't change the taste of the food!!
Once all the cooking was done and we were all starving, we sat down to a table full of food. My cousin leaned over to his girlfriend and began pointing at the dishes on the table. "These are amazing!" "You've never tasted anything like this!" "I wait all year for this dish alone." "It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without my aunt's _____." "My cousin makes the best sweet potatoes this side of the Mississippi!" "Oh! Get more of that dish - you'll love it." I never realized how much my cousin enjoyed coming over for Thanksgiving. It made us feel good to know that he loved it as much as we did!
The dinner was delicious! For some reason, it tasted better than it has in years past. We're not really sure why but everyone seemed to agree. Maybe it was the extra smoke in the turkey. Maybe it was that I sneezed into the sweet potatoes. (Just kidding! I did cough close to the dressing before it was cooked. I think we saved it though...) Who knows! I just know it was scrum-didilly-umptious! :)
That's all for chapter 2. Be excited because the next chapter is all about shopping! What an adventure that one was... :) Just you wait!!!