I'm Thankful I Didn't Have to Bake a Turkey

Our Thanksgiving was small, but nice this year. Randy and I went to Mom & Dad's and it was just the four of us there for Thanksgiving dinner.

Mom baked a couple of baking hens in her rotisseries (yes, she has two of them, and the hens were just large enough not to fit in the big rotisserrie at the same time). When she took them out they were golden brown on the outside and moist and delicious on the inside. She also had mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, coleslaw, and an interesting pumpkin dish. She said she'd just thrown the pumpkin dish together because she had all the stuff to make it. *LOL* It was pureed pumpkin mixed with brown sugar, spices and nuts, topped with crushed gingersnaps and baked. It was very rich and very good.

I took my infamous broccoli and cheese casserole (which everyone either really loves or really hates, depending on their fondness for broccoli), some stuffing with dried cranberries (yummy!), some deviled eggs (Randy's special request), and a sweet potato pie (purchased at Wal-Mart; I never HAVE been able to make a pie crust you could cut with a chain saw).

The food was all great, and we had the dishes washed and put away by 1:00 p.m. I told Mom that we were finished and ready to hit the couch by the time a lot of people were just sitting down to dinner!

It was cold and spitting snow most of the day, so it was lovely to be piled up in their living room, full of Thanksgiving dinner and warm and cozy.

It was Randy's turn to stay with his Mom Thursday night, so we took both cars to Mom and Dad's and Randy left from there late Thursday afternoon. It was a lovely, relaxed day, and I was very grateful I hadn't had to bake a turkey. :-)

Yesterday I dragged the Christmas decorations out of the closet and decked the halls. Meghan was NOT amused; she doesn't like ANYthing changed, THANK you VERY much. She followed me around, sniffing things as I took them from boxes, then looking up at me with those big brown eyes with her expression that says, "Oh, PLEASE, Mom. You're not going to hang THAT thing up again this year, are you?"

Today (Saturday) I have a thrilling day planned. Laundry. Housework. Cooking. Randy wanted me to cook a ham today, and I agreed. I'm making this blog entry while waiting for it to get late enough so that I won't disturb my downstairs neighbor too early on a Saturday morning. (Thoughtful little cuss, aren't I?)

I love early Saturday mornings. I wake up early, even if I TRY to sleep in. If I'm planning to stay home on Saturday I never set an alarm clock, but I wake up at my usual 6:00 a.m. just the same. I don't mind, though; it gives me a chance to have some undisturbed computer time. :-)