Friday, November 28, 2008

The Turkey's Not The Only Thing That's Cooked


Dear god. It's over.

I made myself stay out of bed until nine last night at which point I brushed my teeth, fell into the sheets, pulled up the covers and read until I realized I was asleep with my eyes open. It was ten. I turned out the light and didn't get up until ten and a half hours later.

Now I feel like someone beat me with a stick the entire ten and a half hours.

It was some Thanksgiving. At one point on Wednesday night there had to be at least twenty-five people crammed into my library. And four dogs. When they built this house back in 1859, they were into symmetry, I suppose, so every room in the house is the same size. The library has the least furniture in it and so there we were, the porch being too cold for the musicians.

And it was as awesome as I'd thought it would be.

Family/friends/neighbors.
No difference.

Then came yesterday and the oven fiasco and the 18.92 pound turkey (what the hell was I thinking?) and the forty-five casseroles and four desserts and the angel biscuits.

The kids did over half the work, not only of the cooking but of the clean-up and set-up, too.
And it's a good thing they did or else I'd be dead now instead of just really, really tired.

We had about fifteen for dinner and the highpoint (or low-point, depending on your particular point of view) was when the six-year old took off running across the back yard being chased by four dogs who had suddenly turned into a snarling wolf-pack trying to bring him down to get the turkey in his hand.

Mr. Moon loped off across the yard and saved the child who learned a whole lot of lessons in one twenty-second segment of time and who will probably hate both dogs and turkey his entire life, even if he can't remember why.

I sent everyone home with plates of food and dammit, my refrigerator is still crammed full of food. The sort of food I never eat. And a turkey carcass wrapped in foil and tied up in a plastic grocery bag.

Ah well. I'll just make soup.

And now I am hungry, believe it or not, so if I can find the soy milk in the back of the refrigerator, I am going to eat some cereal. And then I need to go take a walk, although I certainly feel like I could just get back in bed and sleep another ten or eleven hours.

That would be wrong, right?

I'd go into how amazing and wonderful and worthwhile it all was but fuck, I'm too damn tired.

And I'm seriously thinking that Mr. Moon and I might just skip out on Christmas entirely this year. I mentioned that to the kids and there were actually sort of excited about the prospect. Miss Maybelle volunteered her apartment for the gathering if we leave and they were all making plans when I went to bed on Wednesday night. Mr. Moon has no problems with the idea, so maybe....

Would the world still spin on its axis? Would the sun continue to rise and set on schedule?

You know, I think it would.

I'm considering it.

Meanwhile, I need to go find that soy milk. I sure ain't cooking breakfast and that is a fact.

10 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haha!

    Yes!

    I just had cereal too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. sounds like a great although exhausting holiday!!!!

    good luck on the Christmas move!

    ReplyDelete
  4. And that is why I often have not cooked a Thanksgiving dinner and may never again. It's the too muchness of it all...too much work, too much food, too much carrying on. I do think your Wed. night thing should become your new tradition. No bird in the oven and no 40 casseroles. I know I'm not supposeed to mention the kids starving in Africa, but I just can't hack the overdoing of the food thing here. And for the most part (Juancho excepted), it's the women who do the work while the men watch football or talk politics or just become belching couch pototoes. If the younger generation has changed that, please let me hear!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ok, that part about Cody being chased by the dogs cracked me up. What's funny is Baby D, my sweetie, can't stop laughing anytime he thinks about it. He explained to me this morning why he thought it was so funny. 1. It was just funny to see a kid being chased by a pack of dogs. 2. He didn't realize that Cody had a big hunk of turkey breast in his hand at the time, which, was really funny, especially when he came back to his seat and still had it all still in his small hand. And 3, Baby D was laughing so loud during the chase, which is somewhat rude and immature, and now thinks our whole family must hate him for laughing at a kid. I assured him that I don't think this is true, but he better be glad Cody didn't get hurt.
    Thanks for the great Thanksgiving Mama. And if you want to go away for Christmas, that is just fine with me, because you and Pop deserve it, but don't expect this kind of treatment every year! Hehe, just playing. Sort of. Hah.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lo- I agree with you on everything. Although I will say that the men did a LOT of work. Jessie's BF, Baby D., did at least 70% of the dish washing for the entire event and I don't have a dishwasher. Downtown Guy set up the tables and put 'em all back and made his casserole and set the tables and made the relish trays. And helped with the cheese and crackers. And so forth. He did anything his mama asked him to.
    And Mr. Moon? Well, he got oysters and moved the fire pit and shucked oysters and cooked oysters and rounded up trash and got it out of sight and washed some dishes, etc.
    And bought the booze!
    And oh yes, paid for it all.
    And Jason did some dish washing too, and helped as much as he could, although he and Lily couldn't be here as long as everyone else, due to work and other-family obligations. He sure did help carve that turkey and assured me repeatedly that it was done. And also carried the turkey from my house to next door during the oven crisis.
    Bless him.
    So the men are golden. Around here, anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It sure took a village to pull of the Moon's Thanksgiving and it sounds like that's just what you had! :)

    I

    ReplyDelete
  8. Take your day of rest and enjoy the cereal. You can start on the leftovers later.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That was delicious and awesome. One of my favorite parts was all us "kids" pulling each other around on big bamboo stalks over by the barn. Poor Mr. Spaniel nearly had a hell of a drop after he climbed up one that failed to bend the way he hoped it would.

    The dinner was delicious, of course, and the music was amazing. You go on and do what you need to do for Xmas, we'll hold down the fort.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.