Family Forum / Marriage / Marriage / November 2006

<burp>

DD and I decided that it would be a dishonor to the Pilgrims for us not to
gorge ourselves.

Really.... we had a very nice day.  I started brining/marinating the turkey
yesterday, and was up until 4:30 am getting things in order.  Put the turkey
on about 1:45 and settled in to watch the dog show on television with DD and
DH.  About the time the show was over, it was time to start making the side
dishes.  DD and I worked together, and it went pretty smoothly, except that
we put the rolls in the oven on the bottom rack, and the bottoms burned.
Since DH *must* have his rolls, we had to put more in, and, in the meantime,
the gravy started separating a bit.  No biggie, but, it set us back 45
minutes to an hour.

Then the family all got together and watched "O Brother Where Art Thou?".
Had some pie, and now we are considering rolling ourselves into our beds.
;-)

Sheila

Mine didn't start off too well, with a bout of vertigo in the night..
finding out that it's been three years since I had a bout signifcant
enough to require meds, as my prescription was from Jan 04!.. Guess it's
time for a new script.  Perhaps, foolishly, I took them anyway.

Thankfully the meds made me sleepy and, I'm told, was sawing logs all
night :-)  (and note to self.. anti-vertigo medication makes me VERY
sleepy.. I should remember that one when I'm in my bouts of insomnia!)

Kids went to the football game in the pouring rain this AM, came home,
changed out of their sopping wet clothes and we all went up to my mom's
for a yummmmmy meal.  

We had turkey, stuffing, winter squash, candied yams, turnip, mashed
potatoes, carrots, boiled onions, cranberry sauce- from a can- yuck!  
lol.. sweet pickles, olives, celery sticks- the carb meter was off the
charts on this meal!  

After dishes were done, and some visiting & chatting we had a choice of
mince-meat pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie or oreo ice cream cake.  I chose a
small sliver of pumpkin and a small sliver of oreo IC cake.  Yummy, both.

I truly enjoyed seeing the interaction of SO with the "kids" that were
there.. (their ages range from 14, 17, 18 and 20).. :-)

Once home, I slept all the way home- which is an hour & 10 minutes to an
hour 1/2 away, depending- came back here, hung out a while..laid down to
read a bit while SO was surfing the net on his laptop and woke up a couple
hours later, LOL.

DD just left a few minutes ago with some friends for a midnight madness
sale at a nearby outlet mall, DS is doing his laundry and watching a
movie, I'm sitting at a table on my computer and SO is sitting on the
floor, next to the bed also surfing the net, and we're listening to some
good music :-)

Not the most "Norman Rockwell" of Thanksgivings but was nice to see
family, my normally obnoxious sister was extremely pleasant with only one
comment about SO & I not being married, and this time, did not come off as
rude so much as just curious.

All in all.. a good day, despite the non-stop, pouring rain.

Instead of spending all day cooking, we all went to the dining
facility here on base and ate with a bunch of other families who
decided they didn't want to cook. :)

Menu was basic but good. Steamship round, turkey, crab legs, fried
shrimp, mix veggies, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, yams, two
kinds of stuffing, rolls, salad bar and dessert bar.

Now we just had a couple of pieces of pie each and are watching
the top 100 songs of the 80's.

Tracey

"Temily" <temilyp@hotmail.com> wrot:

I put the turkey in the oven at 8AM, and discovered to my
shame+disgrace at 9AM that I'd forgotten to turn on the oven.
My wife had a conniption, but it turned out okay as her kids
were late anyway  Shortly B4 we ate, she admitted that there
was no topping for the pies.  I do not eat pie without whipped
cream or ice cream, so she ran out to a convenience store.

Luckily, her kids did not linger over the meal, but ate and ran,
as they had two more Thanksgiving Day meals to do.  The
principal blessing:  We had an incentive to clean the house.
Lots of leftover turkey:  Turkey melt sandwiches, turkey
pot pies, turkey+rice, turkey noodle soup... :-)   =R=

It was yummy.  Went out to a restaurant (first time i've done that on
thanksgiving) with one of my sons, his gf, and my sons' dad.  It was
traditional and yummy as home-made.  And no worry about missing leftovers, my
husband came home from the gathering with his kids, their mom (and her latest
fling), son's wife's parents, etc. etc. with tons of leftovers and almost a
whole pie.  Would have been nice to be together with my husband but neither of
us wanted to miss opportunity to spend it with our own kids (i've done that
before and i regretted it very very much, something i'd do differently if i
went back in time but we can only work from now).  
Hopefully Christmas we'll be able to get more of us together here at our
place.

All this turkey and pie..I'm so jealous!!!!

Temily - eating vegemite sangers hehe

Wonderful! We made pumpkin pie and fresh bread before heading to others
where their relatives are also thousands of miles away. After trying to
cach the host on how to carve a turkey (with a dull knife, no less), we
ate and drank well.  We ended the evening playing guitar and singing
songs.  Much to be thankful for!

Came home to feed the neighbor's animals.

S
very content today

Pretty good. DH and I were late to MIL's house. They were all waiting
for us to start dinner, so we timed it just right. They meaning: MIL,
FIL, two BIL's, one very pregnant SIL, two nephews and one niece (the
"monsters") and two dogs (one older mellow dog, and one jumpy
high-spirited younger dog).

DH's youngest brother and wife were not eating because they were going
to her mom's for dinner. So they offered to watch the little monsters
while the adults ate. But one of the monsters (6 years old) joined us
at the table... so no peaceful dinner for us!

First, he repeated everything MIL said. We all ignored him, hoping he'd
stop. He did this for about 30 minutes in a very loud voice. When we
cont'd to ignore him, he started to scream instead. Gut wrenching
screams, while also laughing like a madman.  FIL politely told him to
use his inside voice. He kept screaming and laughing. Then he took his
spoon and made a catapult out of it. He'd slam his fist down on the
spoon, and watch it fly... over and over.... very lucky it didn't land
on MIL's good china and break it. DH was sitting next to him so when
his brother did nothing to discipline the monster, DH finally grabbed
the spoon and ordered his nephew out of the dining room and back out
with the other kids.

BIL was very sad, he's going through a divorce. His stbx called his
cell phone and the home line incessantly throughout dinner. He did not
talk much about the divorce, spending most of his time either running
after monsters, or running to get his phone. BIL ended up packing up
the kids early, instead of staying the night, and driving two hours in
a downpour to return the kids to their mom, who suddenly wanted them
back for the night. I do have to say we were all relieved to have the
little monsters leave.

Meanwhile, FIL was quite happy to be in his own house, presiding as
head of household. As I mentioned, FIL and MIL are separated (have been
for the last two years) but there are hints that they may be
reconciling. FIL and MIL were quite affectionate with one another....
very soft and gentle towards each other. Calling each other by their
pet names, smiling at each other, etc. DH says it was one of the most
pleasant holidays he's ever spent and he's happy to see them both happy
again! But FIL did not stay the night -he cut out early before sundown,
after kissing MIL goodbye. It's almost as if.... they are... dating and
courting each other! Quite sweet! Their 45 anniversary is coming up.

DH and I were the last to leave. We hung out with MIL for a good two
hours more after everyone else had left, and had a nice visit with her.
She skirted any inquiries about FIL and what is going on.. she'd just
smile with a sparkle in her eye!

Oh! And the food: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, squash,
yams, two types of cranberry sauce, pecan pie, applie pie, and pumpkin
pie. All of it, except for the homemade cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie
that we brought, was store-bought from a local turkey farm. Just heat
it up and serve. All quite tasty though... especially the squash. I
don't even like squash, but I liked this squash.

jen

It was almost 50 degrees here in Minnesota, with sunshine.  So that was
nice.

We usually go to SIL for a big family get-together.  But this year FIL
is in the hospital.  He is 86 and his heart is failing.  So nobody felt
like a big family get-together.  We had our own Thanksgiving at home,
and DD1 came home from college.  It was nice, but it felt funny not
getting together with the rest of the family.  In the evening, we went
to see FIL at the hospital, and almost all the rest of the family was
there.  So we did get to see everyone after all.  And FIL seemed to be
doing a bit better.

On a brighter note, DD2 went out at 3:00 AM to help prepare meals for
needy families, and then on Thanksgiving morning they distributed them.
She was pretty tired, but she was glad she did it.  I definitely feel
thankful about how my two girls have grown up.

Spoilers

for

The

Good,

The

Bad,

and

The

Ugly

Very nice.  On the marital front, after everyone left and the girls were
playing Neopets, DH and I watched "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" or as
I call it, "The Not As Bad, The Bad and The Ugly", 'cause you can't call
Blondie "Good".  DH loves a western, and that is one I can watch, though
I tend to wander off at certain points and do other stuff.  The vicious
beating in the Union camp, for example.  But I love the blowing up the
bridge part.

It was just the four of us. I put up with 5 hours of "is it ready yet?"
followed by 15 minutes of actual eating. The meal was ecclectic, just
like me: Moroccan-spiced turkey with couscous stuffing, mashed potatoes,
baked beans, macaroni and cheese, Caribbean sweet potato oven fries,
homemade whole wheat dinner roles, basic cranberry sauce (not from a
can, tho), and three kinds of pies--pumpkin and green-tomato mincemeat
made from my garden produce, and apple pie from the apple pie filling I
canned last month after we picked up 60 lbs of apples at the local orchard.

My family is very thankful that I am a good cook. I am very thankful
that my husband did all the dishes!

My kids also played neopets all day, in between all the whining about
how hungry they were from waiting so long.

For me, it was quiet.  My grandmother, aunt, uncle, and I had a nice
dinner at my aunt and uncle's house.  Afterwards, my uncle went off to
do farm stuff he needed to get done, while my grandmother, aunt, and I
talked.  Then my grandmother dozed while my aunt and I talked.  It was
nice, since we've not had an opportunity to do that in years.

YS feels better about his grandfather's health after spending
Thanksgiving day there.  It's the first major holiday since his
grandmother died, so he's been really worried about his grandfather.
They had a good day, and he found out that his grandfather now has a
"lady-friend."  :-)  YS is happy about that, because his grandfather
doesn't seem nearly so depressed as before.

YD and TF went to have Thanksgiving with TF's father, leaving Chewy
home alone.  So Chewy chose that time to go work with horses.  The stud
we're boarding was *supposed* to be well-trained.  Bruises on Chewy's
backside and a set of broken reins show just how well-trained he is.
;-)

YD and Chewy missed YS and me.  Chewy's working hard to make a fresh
start, to work on the remainder of his challenges.  I've been home 24
hours, and YD's already gotten herself grounded again... with Chewy's
full backing.  :-/

How are things going for you?

Kitten