I’m happy to announce, “Another successful Thanksgiving in the bag”. Well… in all honesty it could have gone a little more smoothly. After checking on the turkey, only to realize that it was already done after thinking that it still had another couple of hours left to cook, we went into panic mode. I rushed to get the dressing done, (surprise, surprise, I had procrastinated on that little task), while Dave quickly prepared the corn for a flash cooking.
Having roasted the turkey in an electric roasting pan I still had to pop it into the oven to brown the skin and the meat thermometer was already reading that it was fully cooked. After letting the turkey “rest” for the recommended 20-30 minutes, (as you know, the turkey continues to cook itself during this period of time), while I scrambled to finish the remaining side dishes I was fully expecting that we were going to have to drown the turkey in gravy in order to be able to swallow a single bite of it.
Once again, the proverbial egg was on my face. Apparently our meat thermometer is off… by a LOT! After our mad dash to get all of the food to sync up to our amazing, prematurely cooked turkey, I carve into my beautiful, golden bird only to find… yep, you guessed it… BLOOD! UGH!!
I am happy to report that after only another couple of hours, we had a fully cooked succulent turkey and many side dishes that, despite the fact that they had to be reheated to yet again sync up to our turkey, (who knew birds were such high maintenance?), turned out to be quite delicious.
After dinner we all retired to the backyard to play some soccer and football. Dave and Dawson were having a football throwing contest where they would try to land the ball directly through the bull’s eye of the net. Drake was excited to participate… at first.
It didn’t take him long to figure out that he was no longer interested in playing this game with his daddy and big brother since they seemed to delight in his contribution a little too much for Drake’s taste... Once he understood the game. Needless to say, I was less than amused by their idea of “including” my youngest child in their “game” as well! (O_O)
While Dave finished wearing out the neighborhood kids outside I put the finishing touches on my Pumpkin Crème Brule that turned out beautifully. It took everyone a quick 5 minutes to inhale their deserts and then we all retired to the deck for the evening.
Our deck is the one area in our little cinder block, section 8, base housing where it really feels like our own little slice of home. We spend much more time out here than we do in all of the other portions of the house combined. It is one of the benefits of living on a subtropical island; with the addition of the awning that Dave erected for me last Mother’s Day, our deck is pretty much functional 365 days a year, (with the exception of typhoon season, of course).
We each have our respective little areas on the deck that we tend to retire to. Mine consists of a little seating area complete with a side table, chair, porch swing, tropical plants, and currently, an electric fireplace for those chilly 60 degree evenings. Brrrrrrrr! (Heeheehee)
Dave and Dawson’s area consists of a 32” LCD TV mounted on the wall, (Soon to be replaced by a 46” that we recently acquired), a PS3, and two homemade… or as my husband would say, “custom made” (I guess he’s right in a Joe Dirt kind of way)… video game racing cockpits complete with a fan in front to make it more realistic when they are driving convertibles. Okay, okay, I just threw in the last part because it was just too funny to resist. Can’t you just picture them sitting in their “custom made cockpits” with the breeze blowing through their hair as they scream down the digital asphalt?!
DJ & Drake’s area takes up the majority of the deck. With a 6’x8’ shed full of toys, a slide, two swings (built into the awning), and a mini basketball hoop at their disposal, there is usually an arsenal of toys to be found in any given area of the deck at any given time. I don’t mind though… being from Idaho, I thoroughly enjoy the outdoors and am grateful that my children follow suit.
This evening we decided to break out the boys’ Little Tykes jumpy castle and set it up on one area of the deck so the boys could commence to bloodying each other up and tiring each other out while the rest of us retired to our respective areas of the deck to watch and otherwise mediate.
All in all, I would have to say that today was a grand success, Mulder style, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I hope each and every one of you has just as eventful and memory producing of a holiday as ours has turned out to be.
Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless!
