Thanksgiving 2011

My oldest daughter hosted our Thanksgiving feast this year. My food assignment was turkey, dressing, sweet carrots, and gravy. My preparations began the night before by prepping two, twenty-two pound turkeys for the oven (I wanted one for home), prepping the veggies for the dressing, slow cooking the giblets, necks, onions, and celery in my crock pot overnight, and making a detailed cooking to-do list for the next day.

Once our night before chores were done we sat down to watch some TV. The phone rang and it was our middle daughter who lives at the end of our street with her family. She had been raising a turkey this year and it had been prepared (going to skip the details) for roasting. She had to call us to share the news that it was a #30 pound organic, home grown, bird. She invited us down to come see it.

Notice that the 30# does not include the wings. With her turkey raising skills she is going to have to invest in a bigger roasting pan! While we were there we decided that this prize bird needed to be adorned with some frilly socks for serving. My husband went home, researched how to make the frilly socks, created a pair, then ran them down to our daughter.

Our Thanksgiving day began with a 4 a.m. wake-up to pull the first turkey from the fridge. Then, back to bed until 6:45 a.m. when it was time to pre-heat the oven.  The first turkey was popped in the oven (in a cooking bag, no basting required) and the second turkey was pulled from the fridge and placed on the counter to wait it's turn in the oven.

All went as planned. I learned this year that those meat thermometers in the turkeys are right on. I had backed myself up with my digital meat thermometer and they both reached the desired temp at the same exact time.

This year we carved the turkey(s) ahead of time, we placed both in a foil lined roaster that I had placed water in the bottom of and preheated the water and the roaster oven to low. This kept the turkey warm without cooking it anymore while my husband carved the two turkeys and we transported it down the block to my daughters home.

My daughter and her husband also brought their prize bird to show and share with the family. This put us at 74# of bird for our feast!

A couple of the cousins had their eye on those drumsticks.

The kids table was as cute as it could be.

Each place setting at the table and along the bar had a coloring page, 

a Pilgrim hat filled with crayons, and a name tag 

Mayflower straw in their drink cup.

The adult table was beautifully set for twelve.

Just before our blessing on the food my five year old grandson wanted to sing a 

Thanksgiving day song that he had learned at school for the group.

And our abundance of food.

Delicious!

Once the kitchen was cleaned up the adults sat and visited while the kids played in the basement. When our bellies felt like we could squeeze a bit more in we had our dessert. My kids have become really good bakers!

At dark we decided to do something that all of the grands have been after Papa to do for quite some time. We sent one cousin down to the basement with the message that Papa was going to 

have a bonfire to burn all of his yard trimmings. The rumble of the twenty little feet coming up the stairs could be barely heard over the squeals of delight!

Everyone put on their jackets and headed down the street for the bonfire.

With Papa's close supervision one of our grandsons lit the big pile.

One of my little grandsons walked up to me during the bonfire 

and said; "This is the best party ever!"

As we all said our Thanksgiving Day good-byes my oldest

granddaughter extinguished the last of the hot coals.

As I heard all of the little voices yelling

"Bye grandma"

I must agree.

Our day together was one of the

best parties ever!