An Early Thanksgiving with Warts & All

This Thanksgiving is going to be a little different then the usual. My daughter & grandson will be off enjoying the day with friends & my Dad has decided to take the rest of us out for our Thanksgiving Feast. That sounds yummy enough, but a bird must still be cooked & some stuffing must still be stuffed & a pumpkin pie must still be cut, right! 

With all this in mind, I hatched a plan to make my traditional dinner here at home with just the 4 of us a weekend early. A simple affair, with no extra fuss. Easy Peasy was my thought, as Jenny Doh always says on her blog.

All morning I have been working on the turkey & stuffing & my famous Cranberry Jello Salad. {it really is soooo good} For years I've been collecting Johnson Brothers dishes & even though I know better, I mainly use them for the holidays or when I want to create an extra special dining experience. But for this occasion I had planned to just use our regular, everyday 'stuff'. As the morning progressed, my beautiful dishes in the cupboard & plate rack were calling my name. My turkey platter was looking down at me from atop the cabinets & asking "Why?" So, in mid game, I changed gears & went for the 'Half Monty'.

I washed & dried all the dishes by hand, set the table as quickly as possible, grabbed my camera & thought, "This could be a wonderful post for my blog. I will document the beauty of this family moment for all to see & later, I'll be able to look back at this day & cherish it always."

Not so much...

The house was smelling fabulous, the turkey was brown, the mashed potatoes were mashed, Robert was busy making gravy, all was right in the world. I was thinking about the pictures I would take of my glorious meal with images of my loving family surrounding me. "What kind of blessing should I say?" I thought, "I want them all to know how very much they mean to me." Now I gotta tell you, at this point I'm starting to feel a little exhausted. I had been watching Kai all day while I was preparing this feast & my back was starting to ache just a tad.

As we gathered round our holiday table I asked Robert to come over & carve the bird, but since he was doing the final touches on the gravy he told me to "crave it myself." OK, suddenly my perfect little 50's moment was starting to come unraveled. I said, "But, the man of the house is suppose to crave the turkey." in my sweetest 1950's June Clever voice. To which he replied, "The woman of the house is suppose to make the gravy, but it doesn't work that way here, right." Now, I assume that comment came from the fact that I really don't cook & therefore couldn't make the gravy even if I wanted to. Kai, who hadn't napped all day, is now tossing his chips into the other plates. As if in slow motion, I watch as everyone sits at the table & without as much as a 'thanks', starts chowing down. In my mind I thought "But what about my special little blessing? You're all ruining it, how can I take pictures of this glorious meal, if it's all hacked up?" Still standing & doing my very best to keep it together, I continued to try & carve the damn bird. My technique sucked & because it was so damn moist, it's fallin apart as I try to get it from platter to plate. Robert announces, "Don't forget the stuffing.", which of course I had forgotten. He kindly left the table, got a spoon & a bowl & came over to help empty this poor turkey's stuffing, bloated belly. I softly murmur to him, with teeth ever so slightly clenched, "Get away from the bird!"

 I LOST it! I have no idea what came over me! At this point my daughter starts laughing hysterically & says "Grandma always said, it isn't Christmas 'til somebody cries." We had just bought Kai, 'Shrek's Christmas' & this was one of Donkey's words of wisdom. Out of the mouths of babes, right! {ok...she's 27, but she's still my baby} I know, I know... it's not the turkey or the platter, it's not the place settings or the photo ops, nor is it the special little blessing that give us the glow of the holidays. It's the love & imperfections of our own families that fill us with joy & laughter & makes this life so rich & so worth living! I'll try my best to remember this lesson for the next time & for now I will laugh & learn to love myself, warts & all!