So, here's what's on our Thanksgiving list:
Roasted Turkey with Smoked Paprika
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Deviled Eggs
Stuffed Mushrooms
Green Bean Casserole
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Not too much (since it's just the four of us). Also, I figure I'll have the deviled eggs and stuffed mushrooms ready for an appetizer around lunch time (when the children start salivating and moaning and trying to tear us limb for limb) and then have the actual meal around 2:00 or something. Then we won't really need dinner, we'll just eat more leftovers.
While we're discussing meals, here's what this week's menu is:
Monday--Sweet & Sour chicken (which Ebeth loved!!! but Evan and Julia did not super enjoy)
Tuesday--Shoulder steak, German potato salad, corn
Wednesday--Lemon fish, noodles, edemame (sp?)
Thursday--THANKSGIVING MEAL
Friday--Turkey and Wild Mushroom Hashcakes, green bean casserole, mashed sweet potatoes
I think it's kind of odd to have such a small Thanksgiving. I'm going to enjoy it, but it's not what I'm used to. When I was really little, we'd go to my Aunt Betty's house every year. My Aunt Betty is my mom's aunt (my grandpa's sister) and she had a fantastic house for children. She had a ginormous back yard and a plot of land they owned next to the house that we could run around on. They had a play area with a piano that we sometimes got to "play". She had a drawer in her kitchen full of little toys. I remember being about 3 or 4 and playing in the kitchen while my mom, her sisters, her aunts and cousins all were getting dinner ready. Aunt Betty always had a GIANT poodle (Tigger and then Esau) that would sprawl all over the floor and take up a ridiculous amount of room. You'd have to crawl over the respective dog to get the toy area. All of my grandpa's family were invited, so there'd be anywhere from 25-40 people in the house, depending on if out-of-towners showed up. And every year we'd watch Goonies before the men would take over to watch football.
My Aunt Betty has five kids, and her youngest (Daniel) was only two years older then me. There was always a bit of dread when Daniel would find me to come and play games with him. Usually it was Monopoly, and I would be forced to make "deals" that would end up with me selling him my properties for low prices and eventually losing the game. He also had super cool toys like GI Joes and He-Man figurines that I didn't have and loved loved loved playing with.
I remember one horrific Thanksgiving where 4 of the older boy cousins turned Daniel's bedroom into a haunted house. They talked me, my little sister and two of my little cousins to come in. All I remember is that they'd blacked out the windows, had hung slimy things from the ceilings and were hiding in places making ghost noises, trying to grab our hands and legs. I don't remember screaming, but I do remember my little sister, Terra, started crying uncontrollably. You know, the kind of crying where you can't breathe and start hiccuping? Well, she wouldn't stop. The big boys started getting nervous and turned the lights on. My sister's face was beat red, her chubby three year old cheeks were soaked in tears and she was shaking.
Now, you need to know something about Terra. She was notorious for tattling. Her nickname amongst the whole family (children and adults) was "Tattletale Terra". There was even a song that went with the name. So, to have her so upset was alarming cause it meant she'd tell. And because Terra was so insanely good and sweet (and had learned the "never tell a lie" lesson with her whole being), she was always believed by the grown-ups. So, whoever she was telling on was in trouble. And with how hard she was crying and the fact she looked like a total, blubbering mess, these boys were in deep trouble.
My older cousins tried to calm her down. They hugged her and bribed her and took her to the bathroom to get her a drink and wash off her face. But, she was still quietly crying and shaking. That's when one of them turned to the others and said, "We've got to take her down. We'll just have to tell them what happened." So, he carried her downstairs and approached my mom and Aunt Betty (a fierce duo, for those of you who know them...disappointing them was equivalent to ripping your heart out and stomping it to a heart shaped pancake). Both of them looked at the 8 children in front of them--at my sister who was clinging to my older cousin and whimpering, at the 4 older boys' faces that looked quite guilty, at the other 3 little ones who looked pale and shaky. Then my Aunt Betty took Terra from my cousin's arms, passed her to my mom, and quietly said, "Alright, what happened?". The older boys told the whole story and took their punishment quite well. They dismantled the haunted house and were each told there would be more consequences later. There was never a haunted house at Thanksgiving after that, but when the older cousins were feeling rotten, they'd threaten to make a new one. It was enough to turn your blood to ice.
Ah...the joys of cousins who love to torment.
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