Happy Thanksgiving weekend from the not-so-left coast.¹ I trust you all had a nice filling Thanksgiving and avoided the Black Friday rush. Online shopping kind of eliminated that for me, but I didn't do any ordering on Friday either. I'm grateful to have grown out of my interest in owning and wanting things. I would rather have a Christmas where I get rid of things that are in my garage and closet. "It's Christmas Morning! Come and take something, please!"
It was somewhat of a mad rush in our house since we hosted my big family. Yes, again. I'm a glutton for punishment I guess. Although it is Thanksgiving so maybe I'm just a glutton. I feel a little bad because the house was prepared almost entirely by my wife last weekend, as I was off having fun. See the following photos.
It was supposed to be about 20 people, which is pretty large but the number swelled to 32 with "I know this young Navy family, can I invite them?" And "I have two friends that have nowhere to go, can I bring them along?" And a stray or two along the way. The answer is always yes. And my own sister and her husband changed their RSVP from no to yes as she got the day off. Actually, a shattered ankle that's still bothering her gave her the day off, but she returns to work on Monday. I sent her home with a bunch of leftovers and my wife's knee scooter which she has used twice, each time for a broken foot, but on opposite legs. Yes, my wife is a teensy bit accident prone.
I don't know if I've ever mentioned my sister here, one of two that I have. One lives up in Oregon near my brother, and the other down here near me in Escondido. She's a bit of a loner though and I don't see her too often. She works in a casino as the Events Manager, so she always has to work the holidays. I think she likes that excuse though as it helps her remain a recluse and avoid the family get-togethers on occasion.
I always enjoy Thanksgiving, although hosting can be a bit more stressful than I'd like. In a frantic rush to finish stuffing yesterday morning I sliced a finger. I blame the onions which irritated my eyes, so I lost focus. And when moving turkey from a roaster to a platter, I got a pretty hefty burn on my palm. After some ice therapy, it was nothing that an Old Fashioned and a couple glasses of Pinot Noir couldn't fix. While I can't attest to their medicinal properties, it did take away the sting somewhat.
It's a potluck affair so sending everyone home with their dishes and clamshell takeout plates with leftovers, ensured our refrigerator wasn't still jam-packed. Someone left an entire Costco pumpkin pie, a bottle and a half of that pinot, and enough turkey to keep me fed for a couple days before I get tired of it. I tossed out the turkey carcasses this year, as I knew I wouldn't be interested in turkey soup after eating my fill of turkey cuttings over the weekend. I will have to have discipline with that pie though.
While the leftovers are plentiful, the rolls went fast, so I'll have to make another grocery store run, especially since no one brought my favorite sliced canned cranberry sauce. I probably made a few of you gag with that one, as I know that particular side dish is not everyone's favorite. I make a little stacked meal with my turkey day leftovers. I smash some stuffing into a hockey puck shape, frying that up, then layering a slice of cranberry, some mashed potatoes, also puck shaped, some delicately placed turkey, and topping it all off with gravy. It makes the leftovers more presentable, and therefore more acceptable going into Saturday or Sunday.
As we drove up to my cousins to drop off all the extra tables and chairs, I noticed that the parking lots of a mall and a Walmart were jam-packed. As I mentioned earlier, I'm happy to have those days behind me, either because our kids are grown, or I have transitioned to a point in my life where I only desire to minimize what I own, vice wanting "things." I'm at that stage where if I need something I get it, but I don't really want anything more. And a very lucrative yard sale a few months ago is testament to that. My wife and I exchange one or two gifts, maybe a couple more for my kids, but that's about it. We used to go to a movie on Christmas Day after opening presents, but the tripe that comes out of Hollywood these days rarely interests us. We'll see what interests us in a few weeks.
There's a few things on TV which we watch though. We are a few episodes into the newest, and last season of Yellowstone; Special Ops: Lioness is pretty good for a TV action flick. And we also watch Tulsa King with Sylvester Stallone, all on Paramount, and all written by Taylor Sheridan who is one talented guy. Great stuff coming off of his writing desk. I'm also rewatching Ted Lasso, this time with my wife as I was finally able to convince her to watch, and she too is now hooked on what is a wonderful series. On my nightstand I've got a recent book by John Grisham, having just finished another Jack Ryan Jr series, and a Jack Reacher book. I don't read as voraciously as I did in my teens through my thirties, and now get barely a half dozen pages down before I crash into my pillow. These are actually on my Barnes & Noble "Nook" reader, as I check my books out from the library and E-read them. Again, part of me not wanting "things" filling up my house.
So how's your weekend going? What's running on your television and or sitting on your bedside table? Did you shop till you dropped?
Merry Christmas, time to go eat some pie. You want some? I've got more than I need.
¹Just a tiny bit of politics. Every state moved red, even deep blue California. It's more bruise colored now, but I wouldn't exactly call it purple. But that's a post for another day.
" 20 people, which is pretty large but the number swelled to 32... I sent her home with a bunch of leftovers."
ReplyDeleteSounds like how I cook. "How many are we expecting? " "About 20." "OK (looks up quantities in cookbook for a crowd) ....hmmm...increase by 100% per how people really eat, then add 25% just in case."
"I tossed out the turkey carcasses this year, as I knew I wouldn't be interested in turkey soup after eating my fill of turkey cuttings over the weekend." Soup? You use it for SOUP? Reduce it! Add to a lroux and make TURKEY GRAVY to go over biscuits! Or in Turkey Pot Pies .... put them together and freeze for later use.
Sounds like a great time, other than the burn.
Soup...FEH!
I do love biscuits and gravy so thank you for the suggestion. Fortunately I had planned ahead and had an extra turkey, small, pre-smoked, so that covered the extra diners.
DeleteD4Fuzz here. Gravy is the key the a Happy Thanksgiving!! I make mine three days ahead with roasted wings and I this year, I finished it off with 4 ounces of Tillamore D.E.W. I know, some will think that a waste. Try it! You'll like it!! (BTW, that DEW went into a quart or more of gravy.)
Delete"swelled to 32"....that's a good increase to handle out of the blue, congrats Tuna........Family Time is a good thing. Uh.......you got any apple pie? asking for a friend........ :)
ReplyDeleteSemper Paratus with an emergency turkey. See above comment.
DeleteD4Fuzz here (again) Emergency turkeys are a wonderful idea. Down in the bottom of the freezer when the power goes out, a bowling ball glob of fowl meat helps in many ways! We got ours at Publix for $0.49/pound.
DeleteWell, it wouldn't be a very good emergency turkey if I didn't thaw it out already, but it only took 90 minutes to heat up. It was very popular as the smoke flavor tasted really good.
DeleteA lot of people wouldn't see it that way, but much thankfulness came my way. On the fifteenth I was diagnosed with colon cancer, not the spread through your entire body kind, unpleasant enough. On the eighteenth I was talking to a friend in the evening and what I was saying set him off so he ended up getting an exgirlfriend to check on my the next morning. She found me in dirty underwear, in the basement with piles of canned goods and other things all around me and had me hauled off to a hospital which I was seemingly was not a fan of. Some type of infection wreaked much havoc on me and it took until Saturday afternoon to get the place to let me go, against the desires of my friends. The were far more right than I and in the nature of real friends pitched in for me anyway.
ReplyDeleteI found I had more and deeper friends than I knew or ever deserved. Due to the intense dosages of antibiotics, bloody, instant onset diarrhea was the rule of the day and seventy four is not the wrong age to weak diapers, I did manage that chore myself. The xgf bought me a camp toilet so that I wouldn't have to try to run up and down the stairs at a thrift store, though it was still a financial burden for her.
The sewer picked that moment to pack it in, which it does periodically. Sewer cleaning can be quite expensive here so a couple of events ago I bought a cheap sewer cleaning machine from Harbor Freight. Ugly and clumsy, it is sixty five lbs of steel and copper with no wheels. On Thanksgiving Day I restudied the manual and all available videos to find out why it wasn't working. Finally got a edge on view of the underside of it to see where the vacuum hose needed to be attached, and ran the cleaner cable down the pipe twice. This is not an easy job as the forward and reverse travel are manual and require quite a large amount of effort in my debilitated state
So my Thanksgiving was that I have cancer but it may not be that bad, I came close to dying, very close actually, and survived it and am recovering. I was humbled by how much some people care about me in a way that I never expected. I faced the mechanical issues of the machinery with a degree of brain fog and physical weakness and fought my way through it all day. Couldn't have asked for more in a time of Thanksgiving. I hope everyone else was as blessed as me.
Sorry to hear, but it doesn't sound like it's slowing you down. I would have called a plumber even if I didn't have the health issues. Good luck with your treatment and I will throw prayers your way. What's your name?
DeleteJames Nelson, spent twenty plus years in the medical profession and have seen plenty worse off. Appreciate prayers, but have no need for pity.
DeleteCan do James.
DeleteSounds like a successful feast! Nice view from your sunroom.
ReplyDeleteIt's why we bought the place, overlooks a canyon.
DeleteOn the 1st pic., that's Otay Mountain in the distance,. I miss San Diego County and Mexican food restaurants, but not enough to come back. Only way I could live there now, would be in a wandering van. Here in Tennessee, we own our 25 acres of paradise, house, barn, well with the most awesome water.
DeleteEverybody is nice, the state respects the Bill of Rights and the cost of living is much lower. Nashville is the closest blue hive. You really have to go out of your way to find "little Baltimore, Philly", etc. Lots of white people are concealed carriers and everybody knows it, so it's quite safe. You can legally buy guns at flea markets and garage/yard sales.
The Borg of Education hasn't penetrated here too bad, you can find out the truth about The War of Northern Aggression. I know folks will want to argue with that, but you're getting your "info" from the victors that got to write the propaganda to their specifications. Even my 50's, 60's So. Cal. education was Yankee, Borg.
Yep, happy camper here in the Volunteer State. Got that name for heading en mass to Texas when they got into their little disagreement with Mexico. Around here, the Democrats are just wrong, not psychotic. You can be buried on yer own land here. Yeah, found a good home here.
Wow, that went off the tracks, I'll blame my mystery, flu like symptoms. Yeah, that's the ticket, my fever!
Thanks for making the time and effort to run this most fine blog, you alls (said that in Californian).
That photo of San Diego was great!
ReplyDeleteI really love sunrise and sunset shots.
DeleteWe, we empty nest twosome, chowed down a day early, with full enjoyment of the feast as leftovers on real turkey day. Friday we were off to do fun stuff, along the deacquisitioning theme, continuing yesterday and today. We have much to be thankful for, and consider it a great success the past year.
ReplyDeleteCheers to all.-- Especially to Anonymous above with new found problems. Those too shall pass, and the docs can do wonders.
JB
Very nice. To be honest, I'm already growing tired of the leftovers. I will freeze what I can after lunch and enjoy them in a couple weeks.
ReplyDeleteTuna, we have had very quiet Thanksgivings for years now with just our immediate family due to distance and enjoy the relative lack of stress and rush. I have quite come to enjoy them.
ReplyDeleteBecause The Ravishing Mrs. TB and the two Youngers were here, we went out to into the Black Friday world. We did get some good deals on clothes that we needed (or I needed, anyway), but other than than that - like you - I tend to buy the few things I need, which get fewer every year.
I think a quieter Thanksgiving would be nice, but living so close to relatives sort of makes the bigger to do somewhat of a requirement. Fortunately I don't mind.
DeleteD4Fuzz (final thought) We are on the fourth day of mealagris gallopavo. And its juices, rendered by heat. This, I fear will be the last day. And I'll have to switch to stuffing and gravy without something meaty to chew.
ReplyDeleteMay the Lord bless all who read here and may He bless the Country we love so much.
Pray for Miss Jeanie as she goes under the knife on Tuesday at 0530 for what they. say will be an outpatient surgery. Thanks Guys and Gals.
Can do easy, 3 days of rosaries to add her in. Hope it goes well.
DeleteThere is nothing wrong with canned cranberry sauce. Badgers love it!
ReplyDeleteHuzzah
Delete