Thanksgiving past

Thanksgiving week is drawing to a close.  It has been busy, busy, but good, good! On Thursday we had a simple Thanksgiving meal and only a brief family time together, but it was still good to gather everyone around the table.  Truly, I am thankful for many blessings. Today we made the annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to Fredericksburg for a craft show and then walking around this small Texas Hill Country town.  It was 39 chilly degrees with a light mist from time to time – perfect Christmas weather!

Now it is time to catch up on reading and writing.  My notebook that I scribble in has remained untouched for at least 10 days, although my thoughts are constantly writing.  Blogging is far behind, but maybe it is good to sometimes to step away and come back renewed.

This year I cooked my first turkey completely solo.  During the married years the man cooked the bird and did a good job (cooking the bird is a man’s job to my way of thinking).  Since I’ve been on my own I’ve always had my brother-in-law to assist with the task.  But due to time constraints this year (certain lucky family members had football tickets for the UT/Texas Tech game that night) I decided the bird had to go in the oven on Wednesday and be re-heated on Thursday.  Take a big breath, gulp, and do it I told myself.

I picked up the turkey early Wednesday morning; I’ve always cooked fresh turkey hens and order them through a local specialty grocery store.  Thanks to the producer’s helpful website I got the bird prepped and into the baking bag.

I think the smell of a cooking turkey is almost better than the turkey itself!  As family arrived on Wednesday the house was filled with the mouth watering aroma of a cooling turkey!

Here she is, just before BIL took the knife to her.  I had watched several carving videos while it cooked and chickened out (pardon the pun) on this part.  I was afraid that I would either mess it up or slice off my fingers, so the bird was put in the refrigerator after cooling and then warmed gently on Thursday morning.  Carving is definitely a man’s job.