I have a big family dinner on Thanksgiving. I start on Friday, buying the turkey and putting it into a big cooler with some ice to thaw. It is a BIG cooler for the BIG turkey. This year’s was typical - twenty-six pounds.
You’re supposed to buy a turkey of about one pound per expected person. We had twenty people, and my choice was limited to the single twenty-six-pound bird and a flock of measly little fourteen-pounders. My oven isn’t big enough to roast two turkeys, so…!
I use oven roasting bags because they make the turkey cook a little faster and you don’t have to worry about having a tall enough covered roaster. The bags say they’ll hold a turkey up to twenty-four pounds, but I can make my monsters fit.
I bought the turkey on Friday. I finished my grocery shopping on Saturday, put the leaf in the table and made cranberry gelatin salad and deviled eggs on Monday, roasted the turkey, got out all the serving pieces, and cleaned the house on Tuesday. Wednesday, I carved the turkey, baked pies, and cleaned some more. Thursday, I made the gravy, assembled and cooked the side dishes, baked the rolls, and got ready for the ravening hordes.
They came, they saw, they ate, and ate, and ATE. As is the custom, by the end of it all, we were all blissfully miserable.
Why do we do this every year? Because we value family - all of them! The crazy and the annoying. The one who volunteers to bring three things, brings eight, and burns the one thing you really, really counted on. Oh well. It is what it is, and what it is, is family.
Now THAT’S value!
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This post is part of the Five-Minute Friday link-up. Today's writing prompt was "VALUE." For more information on Five-Minute Friday, click here.
Ruth, first, I just want to say that I love your background. Yes, to all books! I know the value of the time spent with family and good food..This year I kind of overdid it with the appetizers, haha. Visiting from fmf.
ReplyDeleteJulia
Yikes! I got off easy this year, we cooked the turkey and took it to my SIL's house. There was even some leftover to bring home. Hope your house is still cleanish after the hordes of valuable family left. Think of how much more value the peace and quiet will have after all the chaos.
ReplyDeleteI was happy to meet some family at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Then the kids came in the evening for dessert and games. So much more calm.
ReplyDeleteComing from FMF.