Time to Brine the REST of the Turkeys!

Thanksgiving Day! Love it. We got up and had a French toast and bacon breakfast that couldn't be beat. Pops stuffed Tom Turkey while the kids and I grabbed our swimming gear...

And we had our second annual "Brining of the Turkeys". 

Then it was home again to prep our turkey relish tray. 

This year there were two offerings, Abizella's turkey and Superkid's duck.

We were super happy to have two of the Andrus Ladies join us for our feast! We missed Joe and Holly! We have had many a fabulous holiday feast in their home. But even though we couldn't have them, we were grateful to have their huge kitchen to prepare our feast.

Jessica taught us the secret of her cranberry, orange, ginger and bonus pomegranate sauce.

Miss Abizella recently attended a table etiquette class and learned several fancy napkin folding techniques. Pops charged her with table setting and she took it to new heights. 

The napkins look just like turkey feathers!

THE FEAST!

The tryptophan  nap.

A Thanksgiving day that couldn't be beat. Other than all of the food preparations, we filled our day listening to Alice's Restaurant, tinkering on the piano, sitting by the fire and chatting on the phone with our loved ones. Life is great, we have a lot to be thankful about. As we reflected about the year, we all agreed that Jaws was the biggest blessing of the year. 

Pretty tough to top that one. 

We love them all, we've got the 5 best ones!

8 Sticks of Butter and T Minus 20 hrs. to Thanksgiving Dinner!

Last week Pops texted me the following:

That's right. This year we are brining the turkey. Pops, Little Chief and Jaws went out and got all of the essentials, including an over sized Patriots brining bucket! 

Tonight we are making it all happen! We looped the BEST Thanksgiving movie of all time, Planes Trains and Automobiles, and started turning out the good stuff. In a measly 5 consecutive viewings I cranked out a shell for Grandma Sherrie's banana cream pie, Glama's apple crisp, Todd's Yummy Yummy Yams Yum Yum Yum, and the Lion House pumpkin pie. 

Okay, I may have crashed on the couch occasionally to take in a few laughs. 

This one made Superkid and I laugh our guts out:

"He says we're going the wrong way." 

"Oh, he's drunk. How does he know where we're going?"

"Ya, how does he know where we're going!"

Good times.

Pops has all things Turkey covered. Earlier today he prepared the brine and chilled it. Tonight he made Grandma Rula's stuffing and prepped the bird. He was a little disappointed that he could only find a 20-pounder, but that is bigger than our little butterball who is now tipping the scales at 19 lbs.

Time for splash down!

Mmmmmmmm... turkey brine!

Humble Supplications

One of the best parts of being Tadpole's mom is listening to his prayers each night. For a long time now he has been brief but thorough with, "I'm thankful for everything except the bad guys and the devil.  Amen" But he is back on a poetic streak. Particularly, he has been thanking God for his beautiful mother with her long pretty hair. Last night he delved for the first time into repentance. He said, "Please forgive me for all of the bad things I did today." Then he paused to reflect and said, "And please also forgive me for all of the bad stuff I am going to do tomorrow." Then in defense of his statement he supplicated, "What?! I don't know what I am going to do tomorrow, but it might not be good!"

A Star is Born

Abizella was served a serious blow at piano lessons last week. Her teacher mentioned that she most likely would not be holding a Christmas recital this year becuase she hadn't assinged songs and time was running short. She tossed us a book and said to see if there was anything that looked interesting. Since then Abizella has been campainging hard to get a recital. She went last year to Superkid's recital and thought he was a rock star (he was). Who doesn't want that? She selected "Frosty the Snowman". In about a day she perfected it, and even sings along. She moved on to outfitting her back-up singers for their parts. Here she is decking LC out in toilet paper for his part as Frosty. He's pumped! You can tell he may have a little "star fever" as well.

She has selected the perfect recital froc and is even practicing the perfect curtsey. What do you think? Can you deny this?

The Baby Grows the Fastest

Barely 9 months and walking. Our youngest biped. His first steps were on Veteran's Day. He was standing next to me, holding onto my shoulder, turned and took a few steps over to the chair. Part of me jumped with joy to see my baby hitting a milestone and part of me wanted to push him over and keep him a baby forever. I love this little guy to pieces. He has brought so much joy to our family!

Creative Expression

"Do you lub it Momma? Are you happy?"

Gobble Gobble

I came home to find some gobblers roaming through the house... 

Our Artist in Residence, Miss Abizella, suited Tadpole, Little Chief (not pictured) and Jaws out in feathers. I have a great video of these butterballs strutting through the house, but sadly can't get it uploaded onto Blogger. But you can imagine how cute it is to see these little tail feathers swagger about!

Tadpole is dead set on hunting our Thanksgiving day bird this year. We have a cute little Turkey family living in the backyard that we have been watching all summer. Tad has been licking his chops and talking about our Thanksgiving feast. One afternoon during the homework madness, Pops spied one of our turkeys and pointed it out to the kids. 

Tadpole grabbed a long carving fork from the butchers block and charged into the yard to bag his bird. Pops says that he didn't know turkeys could fly until just then. Our bird made it to the very tippy top of the 3-story high tree next door. Tad was disappointed, but not discouraged. He continues the watch. He has told me on numerous occasions not to buy a turkey. He's got it covered. I told him he better learn how to climb trees!