A Thanksgiving Eve Poem

Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the kitchen,

not a pot nor a pan was clean, not even a smidgen.

The dishtowels were hung on the oven handle with care,

in hopes that someone, anyone would wash the dishes if they dare.

As a new box of SOS pads sat snug under the sink;

visions of a clean kitchen danced in my head, I think.

And as I sighed and began to wash the first platter, 

in the family room there arose such a clatter;

I looked up from the bubbles to see what was a matter!

That's when I saw them, one, two and three;

coming into the kitchen to set me free!

They came to the sink and grabbed the bottle of Dawn,

as the suds bubbled up and the hot water was drawn;

"We'll do the dishes tonight, Mother," the youngest spoke,

as his sister took the glass from my hand before it broke.

"Happy Thanksgiving Eve, Mother!"

 I heard them call out as I walked away in surprise, 

"Don't count on this tomorrow, 

we'll be leaving right after dinner for all those great buys!"

Gobble. Gobble. Gobble.

It's not everyone that will show you a picture of the inside of their refrigerator, but because I have no shame and Taryn cleaned it out last week, here goes...

Wowzers, we have entirely too much creamer. Yep, count 'em, 3 extra large big boys. Yikes. But there is a theory as to why we have so much creamer. And that theory is that since it's a holiday, we need to be prepared in case of an emergency. Like buying extra water and bread before a hurricane strikes. Because you never know when something like this may happen...

It's Thanksgiving morning and as I stumble into the kitchen for the first cup of the day I make a terrifying discovery...

"Oh no! We only have half a bottle of Hazelnut left! And it's Thanksgiving and the store is closed! We won't make it to Friday morning with only half a bottle! We're doomed!"

So I buy extra. And what's up with Mark's industrial size bottle of hot sauce?

There sits this year's turkey on the bottom shelf, trying with all its might to defrost before Wednesday night.

Shopping for our Thanksgiving turkey has always been a bit of an event. My grandmother used to take me, my brother and my cousin to buy our Thanksgiving turkey at Publix every year. Yes, they had Publix back then. It was such a big deal she used to take our picture with the turkey in the checkout lane. We would proudly pose with our 22 pounder on the round turn-table grocery belt as the cashier waited patiently for the flashbulb to go off. It always took a couple of tries.

I went looking for one of those pictures but couldn't find one. Just as well, chances are I'm wearing a pair of plaid pants in them and some things are best left to the imagination.

Hopefully young Tom will be fully defrosted and ready for the oven by Thursday morning. If not, we may have to do to him what we did to his older brother last year...

Muahahahaha!

Let's Talk Turkey

Okay, so let's talk turkey. And ham. And mashed potatoes.

This is what's currently on our kitchen white board...

Along side a list of chores, our pet penguin (courtesy of our sweet nephew Cason) regular grocery items and Hayden's work schedule, you'll find our Thanksgiving menu.

It's got 19 things listed. And there's only 7 of us eating together this year.

Suuuueeee-wwweeeee! (that's my pig call)

We made the list this past Sunday after we ate lunch. I was really surprised at the amount of items called out, especially since we had just finished eating. I thought it would be kinda like when you go grocery shopping on a full stomach. You usually stick to the list and don't fill the cart with junk. But apparently that trick doesn't work in our family. Full or empty stomachs, we like our turkey dinner.

Now if you look real close, you'll see a couple of non-traditional dishes listed. Like Taryn's suggestion, she wants egg rolls on Thanksgiving. HOMEMADE egg rolls. She also requested a 10,000 calorie-per-spoonful gingerbread pumpkin parfait that Paula Deen makes which will probably kill us.

Jesse requested corn on the cob, which he said he would also make. Lord, I love my son-in-law.

Kaitlin said she wanted sweet potato fries and then after she heard her husband say he would make the corn, she said she would make the fries. Did I mention I love my son-in-law?

Maybe I can throw the frozen egg rolls in with the fries.

Hayden said he wanted leftovers. Yep, doesn't care what kind of leftovers, he just wants leftovers. Then he went back to his Ipad.

And Mark? Well, he didn't have a specific food that he wanted, he just had a suggestion about the whole meal.

 "Let's not use anything from a can this year!"

Bring on the parfait.