Thanksgiving, 2023

The sea foam camellia in the front yard has suddenly begun producing its creamy white blooms. I picked some and brought them in, set them in a vase. I wonder if anyone noticed them. I would not be surprised if no one did. 
It was quite a Thanksgiving. 

I was so proud of myself. I got that turkey stuffed and in the oven by eight this morning and by noon I had the biscuits rolled and cut and ready to bake, the gravy made, the greens reheating, the cream whipped, and the pies out of the freezer. I got the house tidied, some laundry folded and put away, my back porch table cleared and ready for the spread to come. 
I told my husband, "I think I'm ready." 
He said, "Ready for what? To start drinking?"
But no, I was not ready for that yet. 

And people started showing up. Jessie and Vergil and the boys, Hank and Rachel, and then May and Michael and finally Lily, Lauren, and all of their crew. After two days of quiet, peaceful preparation, the house was suddenly bursting with sisters, brothers, mamas, daddies, grandbabies, uncles, aunts, partners in all different possible combinations and every one of them carrying baskets and bags and coolers and boxes and dishes. Kisses and hugs were happening everywhere. We were dizzy with it all! 

The children were feral wild things, running through the house, playing games inside and out and once again I realized that I fell in love with this house because it is such a good grandparents' house. So many places to hide. So many places to play. 

Jessie, Lily, Rachel, and I did the Lynn shot of rum and then Glen and Vergil came in and they did one too. It was good rum. It was yum-rum. 

It was so great having the turkey done and out so that all of the casseroles could go into the oven to heat and warm. Meanwhile, Lauren, whom I thought was bringing a few cheeses, made a charcuterie (or as we call it- charcootchie) TABLE. The food on it alone could easily have fed us all. 

Lily made those gorgeous deviled eggs. 

Bless Lauren. Every year I come to love that woman more and more. She is the funniest, the sweetest, the most hardworking, caring woman you can imagine. What a lucky family we are to have her as part of us now. 

Eventually, I managed to convince everyone that we really did need to get this meal on the table. The weather was a little chilly but not bad and the guys had set up tables and chairs in the back yard. Vergil carved the turkey.

We took the casseroles out of the oven, I heated it up to 425, put the biscuits in, and we transferred all the rest of the dishes out to the back porch along with the Chinet (yes!), put hot sauces and pepper vinegar and butter on the table. And then we filled our plates and we sat down and we ate. 

And we laughed. Oh, Lord how we laughed. When the kids were full, they ran off again to resume their games and the adults stayed at the table and discussed a little bit of everything. 

And then it was time. The dreaded time. When everyone pitched in to clean up and leftovers were put in individual containers for people to take home and the kitchen was packed with people and Mr. Moon was loading up things in his truck to take to Tennessee and chairs were being brought back in the house and children were rounded up and there were more hugs and kisses and I was completely overwhelmed and people kept asking me if I wanted more of this or that to keep and I kept saying,  "It's just going to be me!" and I made Vergil and Jessie take home a vat of whipped cream and oh, by the way- this is what the angel biscuits looked like.

August told me, just before they left, that he had thrown up a little bit in his throat which I informed him meant that he had eaten too much pie and too many angel biscuits and then he asked me for a bye-bye treat. 

He did not get one but perhaps he can have pie and whipped cream for breakfast. 

Mr. Moon will be getting up early and leaving around six tomorrow morning. I will already be up and out, standing in line for Walmart to open for those amazing Black Friday sales. 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I have a reasonable amount of leftovers in my refrigerator. Well, the turkey carcass I have with plenty of turkey left on it is more than a reasonable amount for one person but I will get the rest of the meat off of it and then boil the bones for a soup. 

Chicken flautas may be in our future. We shall see. 

I have no idea why but the turkey came out perfectly this year. Probably because it got to sit for a few hours. It was completely done but not dry in the least. I did not spatchcock it or brine it. I just roasted it and basted it with butter and seasoned it with salt and pepper. 

So that's how Thanksgiving went. Here's a picture of Levon that Jessie sent to the group text. 

That's what I'm going to look like in about half an hour. Only not as cute and I'll be prone. 

I think I'll play a little piano tomorrow. 

Love...Ms. Moon

P.S. Rachel took many of these pictures. Lily may have taken a few. I'm too tired to go back and figure it all out. I apologize.