My 1st grown-up THANKSGIVING-2008!

I still can't believe I pulled it off! I mean, don't get me wrong; I'm not the wife that can't cook or anything like that (not hating... just saying).  I LOVE to cook and experiment, or even make up stuff with the random food left over in the pantry when I've been pre-occupied to notice that we're running low on groceries. But, I did it! My very first grown-up thanksgiving dinner! Well, it was more of a lunch cause we ate it early, but for all intentions and purposes, it was a THANKSGIVING DINNER!

The Turkey was golden, moist and flavorful, the sweet potato casserole with marshmallows was browned perfectly and not burned, the pumpkin cheesecake was delicious... the whole thing worked out! Can you tell I'm proud of myself?! LOL! Here's the thing, any good cook or recipe will tell you never to try a new recipe when you're hosting a dinner. And I did exactly that. So, of course I was nervous! Plus, it's not just any dinner... it's THANKSGIVING!!!!

So, here's how it went down. The night before, I decided to get the cheesecake ready to get that out of the way. I also followed my good friend (and awesome cook) Youlie's advice to prep the turkey so that it could soak in the flavors of the rub overnight. The cheesecake was easy. I'd done cheesecakes before, so I wasn't too worried about that. Plus, I was using a Paula Deen recipe. Can't go wrong with Paula Ya'll!

The turkey, on the other hand... well, that's the story! You know when you are in grade-school and they teach you to read instructions all the way through before you start anything?  Well, I must have been out that day cause I didn't do that. I'm already intimidated by the giant 12lb chicken-looking-bird that's sitting in my sink. It's heavy and cold and well, DEAD! I mean the whole thing is just a little bit gross! Let's just say that wednesday night I had a revelation. I'm glad I decided to skip the med school idea!

So, back to the turkey. I cut the little net thing that it's wrapped in, and cut a slit in the plastic bag. Immediately I see "red juice" (i'm trying no to be too gross ;o) and freak. But I calm myself down and remind myself that I'm really not that squeamish, so I quickly get over that. Then as  I continue to unwrap it I notice that there's a wire deal holding it's legs together. So I call my M.I.L. to ask if I can leave that on there. She wasn't sure, but figured it'd be fine. So I did. Then I proceeded to check the next step in the instructions. It said: "rinse the turkey and cavity with cold water." . Easy enough, right? Well, I'm rinsing away. Scared to death to even look inside the cavity. I had decided not to stuff it, so why even take a peek inside the dead bird's cavity. That word, cavity!?! Blech! So, I get my sprayer to shoot water in the cavity and decide to turn the turkey up side down to drain the water out of the cavity. And then... there it came. GUSHING OUT OF THE CAVITY! I started screaming at Randy: "AAAAAAHHHHHHHH... BAAAABE, THE BIRD GAVE BIRTH! I was FREAKING OUT!!!! It was the turkey's NECK! They had stuffed it in the birds cavity! WHYYYYYYYYY?????? GROSSSSSSS!!!! I was shaking! LOL! Randy was laughing at me, poor Brandon didn't know if I was laughing or in distress. He kept walking back and forth in to the kitchen. He was soo cute! So interested but clueless of what the heck was going on!

I finally calm down and decide to go back to the directions. And, there it was. Step 2: "take the turkey's neck out of the cavity...". Great. NOW YOU TELL ME! After that, it was all smooth sailing. Well, kind of. At least until Thursday morning.

So, wednesday night we had a great night of sleep. Brandon had been sick lately so he'd been waking up a lot. And finally, that night, he slept thorough the night. Awesome right? Well, yes and no.  I was expecting him to wake up a couple of times and then at like 6-ish when he woke up for real, I'd stay up with him, have coffee and get the rest of the food ready. Well, he woke up at like 7:30.  So, I was confused and out of it since my body was actually well rested and didn't notice the time.  My in-laws were coming over at 10am to help with anything I might need and just to hang.  So out of nowhere, 9:30 comes around and I'm chillin' in my PJ's drinking my coffee until Randy looks at me and goes... "babe, what are you doing?" And I'm like, why? He's like: "well, it's 9:30, mom and dad get here in 30 minutes, the house is not ready and you're in your PJ's." I proceeded once again to FREAK!  I stared hollering at  him to help me.  We put Brandon for a nap that he didn't want that morning cause he slept so good the night before, so he's crying bloody murder through the monitors, I'm grabbing the vacuum to clean the floors from all the tree branch thingys and glitter from ornaments that fell off when we were setting it up the day before.  Then Randy runs up to take a shower while I'm setting the table, putting the turkey in the oven, vacuuming, Brandon's still crying... 

10:30am:

I step out of the shower, in-laws are already having a good time complimenting the table and the house looking good and I walk down fully dressed and ready to host! 

I DID IT, PRAISE GOD!

It all worked out.  So after the "storm" passed, I thought to my self, I am so thankful for family, provision and joy in this holiday season 2008!  I hope your thanksgiving was as funny and awesome as mine was! 

With much love and thanks in this, the most wonderful time of the year:

Happy thanksgiving day! 

Emille and the Crawford Boys!