A Thanksgiving Feast

We survived the Turkey Day. There were a couple of hiccups in the morning. I got to the church to make everything, and realized that one of the turkeys I had started cooking the night before was terribly, horribly, gaggingly rotten. Instead of being greeted by the rich aroma of tender turkey falling off the bone, it smelled like raw sewage being slowly roasted. We dumped that bad bird, disinfected the air, and cooked bacon. I think the smell of bacon can cover anything, and make any room smell good.

Then I finished cooking the rest of the food that wouldn't give our guests food poisoning. Here are some shots of some of the dishes. This is my favorite meal of the year. Turkey, ham, creamy garlicy mashed potatoes, dressing, carrots, green bean almondine, sweet taters, and homemade gravy.......mmmmmm. We ended up with 40 people there, and it was a nice afternoon.Josh and Mystery came.
My mom kept her leg propped up, and got down to the serious task of sorting through the Black Friday ads. Thanksgiving is the only day of the year that we buy the big city newspapers. Their police reports aren't any fun to read... they are too full of real crimes and other big city schtuff.
Chet spent the whole morning ignoring everyone with his nose in his book. This is such a heart-warming sight to me. I am thankful that this boy, who spent so many years struggling to read, has come so far and now loves to read.
As soon as dinner was served, everyone began to eat and chat. Chet ate nothing but meat and bread. He is such the meatetarian. You thought they were making that up in that ad didn't you? I am pretty sure some ad guy met Chet and was inspired by his anti-veggie palette.
Then I did something strange for me. I put my camera away and just sat there chatting and visiting with everyone. We talked a lot about Black Friday sales, and I would love to tell you about some of the good deals we got, but my children read this blog and Santa doesn't want me to ruin his surprises.

(PS... Mom is now on the strongest antibiotic available. Hopefully it will make a marked improvement by tomorrow to keep her out of the hospital. She wasn't able to fly home today, so we are keeping her for another week. The plan is to get her to fall so madly in love with the mountains that she doesn't ever want to go back to Vegas. So far, the weather isn't cooperating. It is snowing, and my mom is a true-blue desert rat. Can someone come parade around as a Santa in a bathing suit to convince her it isn't that cold??? It would be much appreciated.)