The Beginnings Of A Wonderful Day

My favorite commercial right now is the one with the woman trying to pick an uncooked turkey up out of the sink. In the process she sends it down to the floor, and then up through the kitchen window, knocking out the guy standing just outside. I love it because I can relate. This is SO what it's like in my house during the Holidays!

It might have something to do with getting up at 5:45 a.m. I don't function at full capacity that early in the morning. Mishaps are bound to happen. So I am surprised to say that the turkey is now in the oven, and the only mishap was forgetting to dry it off before putting it in the roasting pan. Which was an easy fix. Though I did accidentally double the liquid needed for the stuffing. It's very wet. But maybe that will just make it super moist? If those are the only things that go wrong today, I'll be a happy camper! And this day will go down in family history as the most accident free Holiday dinner yet.

We have so many funny Thanksgiving stories. Like my first Thanksgiving after I graduated from college. I had just moved to L.A. and my mom had come to visit. We went shopping for all the usual dinner goodies, and when it wouldn't all fit into the severely frosted fridge, I tried to chisel out the ice that came all the way down to the first shelf with a screwdriver and hammer. I didn't know those old fridges had coils along the top, and punctured one, spraying freon all over the room, and killing the fridge. We decided to go ahead and cook everything, and after all the dishes were prepared, discovered that the oven didn't work. We then tried to cook the turkey on top of the stove, only to set it on fire while we were at the bank, almost burning down the apartment complex. During our rush to save us from fire, I broke the back door window. We gave up after that and just had potato soup.

My favorite story, though, is from years ago, when my mom went to visit a friend right before Thanksgiving. Upon her return, her friend insisted she take a frozen turkey home with her, and the only thing large enough to put the turkey in was a big green bowling ball bag. The funny thing is, not a single person asked her about it. Perhaps transporting frozen turkeys in your carry-on luggage is not such an odd sighting around this time of year?

For the rest of the day I'll be consulting my Thanksgiving Dinner To Do List. It outlines what to do, in what order, to pull off a stress-free, perfectly timed dinner. It never ends up that way, but it's good to have a base to work off of! And despite the never ending calamities, we do all end up sitting down to dinner together and eating wonderfully good food.

Though this year is shaping up marvelously well.

I hope I didn't just jinx myself.