Our Interesting Turkey Day

We couldnt just have a "regular" Thanksgiving this year, our had to be different! It sort of started with the surprise visit from my baby brother (who is away at college, but is still my baby brother). He wasnt originally going to come home for Thanksgiving, but then decided to come. I suggested he keep it a surprise from my parents. He got into town late Wednesday night, as in midnight, and my parents were already sleeping. I suggested he sneak in the house (my parents dont always lock their doors) and go to sleep. He agreed and surprised the heck out of my mom the next morning. And her response when she saw him was "what the heck are you doing here?" HAHAHA! What a greeting?


So before all that happened, we had this little setback called...........a BROKEN OVEN! How in the world is one supposed to cook a Thanksgiving meal without an oven? That is a rhetorical question.....I know it can be done, but oooohhhh how much easier the oven makes it! So once the oven/fire hazard was removed from the house, it was picked up off the curb in less than 1 hour. We continued to rack our brains trying to figure out how we were going to cook our dinner. Mom had a couple friends offer their ovens to us, but the idea of transporting food across town just didnt seem "doable". Finally my mom thought about a neighbor who lives a couple doors up who have moved away and have their house on the market. They are really closer family friends, so mom called the neighbor who lives across the street, and has the key to their house. THAT neighbor ended up offering HER oven to us. So we took her up on it. I hurriedly prepped the pumpkin cheesecake (substituted GF graham crust for gingersnap crust), and ran it up there to put it in the oven. Oh forgot to mention that the neighbors were in their pjs about to get ready to leave and go eat their own Thanksgiving meal, and were going to leave their front door open for us! After the hour was up we go get our cheesecake, and turn the oven off. A few hours later after prepping all the other dishes, my mom and I DROVE 4 houses up the street, with the 5 dishes. I even put my seat belt on out of habit, and my mom laughed at me! In our defense, our reason for driving was that we couldnt possibly carry all that food IN THE SLEET!!! Yes ladies, the temperature went from 75* to like 30* in a matter of a couple of hours.......it was crazy! So we brought the food up and decided to head back down to our house, because, who wants to sit in someone elses house while they are not home and your entire family is back at your own house? Not us! We drove back down the street after my mom nearly gave herself a concussion trying to get back into the car. We set our timer to return when we had to swap out the dishes in the oven. When we opened the front door we were greeted with a very nice fog of smoke. My mom trys to get in the house, after taking her shoes off, and the door closes too fast behind her and takes a chunk out of the back of her ankle. I make my way to the kitchen I learn that the source of the smoke was the drippings in the bottom of the oven from the 4 pies the homeowner had made that morning. I opened the door to the oven and I was knocked back by the smoke, and immediately after that the smoke alarm started going off. All I could think about was NOT burning down the neighbors house on Thanksgiving! We fanned the alarm, to make it stop, so that we could gather our thoughts. I opened the front and back door to circulate the air and turned the ceiling fans on in the house. I did a quick switch-a-roo of the dishes in the oven, and we decided to sit our little booties right there and wait until everything was cooked. As the timer got closer and closer to beeping, I started thinking about transporting these smokin' hot dishes home. We called my baby bro up to bring some "supplies" and ideas. He came with 2 beach towels. (thanks John!) We sent him home with one dish and told him we needed more to bring home the remaining items. Just as he left we heard the door open, and turn around to see the homeowners! They had already finished their meal and were HOME! We havent even finished cooking ours! I had to explain the whole story of the smoke, and they laughed. And we devised a plan to get the rest of the food home

After 2 injuries to my mom, a house that could have burned down, being drenched by sleet, and an hour after scheduled dinner time, we all finally sat around the table. It was good......REALLY good! I wouldve made a few tweeks to the menu, but didnt really think about it in enough time. And the best part was the dessert, the pumpkin cheesecake ROCKED!!! PW you did it again!


We ended the night attempting to burn the calories we just packed into our waistline playing the Wii. Marcus had to leave for work, my big brother went home, my sister and her boyfriend stayed for a little bit, I didnt make it very much longer, and hit the pillow pretty early. It was nice actually getting a decent nights sleep, and it was even better getting to sleep in a little. When Kaylee woke up she went straight to Amma and Abba, I trained her well! Actually it was probably because she gets ice cream and chocolate for breakfast from them, or maybe it was because she had NO IDEA I had spent the night too. Either way, I got a few extra precious minutes of sleep. THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!


This year I am most thankful for family, not burning a house down, and for all under-appreciated household appliances!



and as I type this post I realize that I didnt get one single solitary picture of the day! I wonder why?