A Turkey Tale

I know what I was trying to remember to tell you the other day! Remember the Wild Child and the Drooling Dog were coming to stay for several days and we were going to have our Thanksgiving early? Well, as it turned out, the Wild Child's friend Liz needed to return a vehicle to Colorado. Liz doesn't have a driver's license, so she offered to pay all of the Wild Child's expenses if the Wild Child would drive. Unfortunately, it meant the Wild Child would have to miss our Thanksgiving celebrations. Now to tell you the truth, the prospect of NOT HAVING THE DROOLING DOG here was pretty darn appealing. So, much as I miss my daughter and am sorry she can't be here with us, I'm not quite devastated by the news.

We had planned an early Thanksgiving specifically so the Wild Child could be here and not have it interfere with her work as a waitress/bartender. By the time I learned of this change in plans, the turkey was already defrosting in the refrigerator, so we went ahead with our Thanksgiving on Monday.

Since I've been desperately searching for lime green ornaments, I got the turkey ready and put it in the oven before heading out on yet another shopping expedition. I carefully instructed my husband to check the turkey in two hours and cover it if it was looking pretty brown. I also mentioned that he should be very careful about brushing up against the oven dial since the bird needed to cook at 325 degrees for about four hours.

Three hours later, I came home to find that my husband had accidentally brushed against the oven dial and turned the oven up to 425 degrees--presumably when he covered the turkey. The funny thing is that when he looked at the dial to make sure he hadn't changed it, he saw it was set at 425 degrees and thought that was what I had said. So, needless to say, the turkey was done. Okay, actually the turkey was overdone. And it was still over two hours until dinner. So much for multi-tasking. I guess it wasn't a good idea to think I could shop and cook a turkey at the same time, huh?!

Everything turned out okay though. We spent a lovely evening visiting with my son and his girlfriend. I didn't cook too much food and I managed to send a lot of the leftovers home with the kids, including the half of a chocolate mousse cake. (Hey, I know it's not quite a traditional Thanksgiving dessert, but if I'm only going to have ONE dessert, it sure as heck isn't going to be pumpkin pie when the chocolate mousse cake was calling my name!) So, back to the diet tomorrow--more or less. I'm sure we won't be quite as good at sticking to it during the holiday season, but at least we'll try. Or I'll try. My husband, on the other hand, will probably moan and groan and whine every time I do something like send a chocolate mousse cake home with my son.

I took one last photo of my Thanksgiving decorations in the dining area since they'll be coming down Tuesday.

Oh, and these are my Thanksgiving plates--a pattern by Johnson Bros. called Frozen Up from the Historic America line. I dearly love these plates--I'm just sorry I can really only use them once a year, but that makes it kind of fun to bring out the "special" plates, don't you think?

And what do I have to show from shopping while the turkey burned? (Okay, a slight exaggeration, but it sounded good.) Here are my green things. I still didn't find plain old glass balls, but these will do. Target had some green ornaments that I nearly bought but they were glittery, and glittery wouldn't go so well with the rest of my stuff for that tree. Anyway, I thought maybe this green garland and the green bells will add that color I need to the tree and blend okay with what I already have.

And then Kari left me a comment with a link to Amazon. They had some green ornaments and some turquoise ones too, so I placed an order--hopefully they won't take too long to arrive. And thank you all for your suggestions on where to look. They were helpful, but I didn't find quite the right thing. However, if I ever want pickle ornaments or Green Bay Packer ornaments, I certainly know where to look now!

Oh, and I guess I should explain my need for this green--I don't think I really said, did I? It's that darn Holly Jolly fabric and the Christmas Past fabric I used in Marcie's Trees on the Table pattern. I'm making one of the two "Trees" tops into a tree skirt and I want to make a wallhanging using the Holly Jolly fabric. Both of those lines have a lime green in it, and I'm trying to coordinate the decorations for my kitchen tree. Makes sense? Yes, doesn't EVERYONE have a kitchen tree that they coordinate with fabric for quilts they haven't even made yet? And may not get made if they don't stop shopping and stay home long enough to plant their rear end in front of a sewing machine and get some sewing done?

And okay, so yes, as a matter of fact, I AM a bit obsessive when it comes to Christmas decorating, and yes, I certainly will subject you all to photos in the coming days--I just wish my photographic abilities and/or camera were a bit more adequate.

Time to head into the Sweat Shop. Yes, it's midnight, but I'm on vacation, I've had two (or three?) cups of coffee tonight, and I quite clearly have projects to finish now that I've found green ornaments. "See" you all later!