Thanksgiving

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving! The previous weekend we had pre-Thanksgiving dinner at Rachelle's parents' house so we spent the real holiday in NJ with my family.

For as long as I can remember my family would go to my grandparents' house for Thanksgiving. When they moved into the nursing home Thanksgiving was relocated to my uncle's house. This year I made an executive decision to move Thanksgiving to my parents' place because they have a bigger house and for the number of people it would just be more comfortable for everyone. Now that Claire is here and she is crawling and cruising, the more room the better. She also travels with a ton of crap; she would need a nap (or 2) and therefore a pack-n-play, monitors, a sleep sac, toys, etc. She goes to bed a 7pm and with a 45 minute drive it would just be too hard to juggle all of this at my uncle's house.

My parents might have a bigger house, but they happen to have the smallest oven on the planet. It was feared that a turkey big enough to feed the 11¼ people wouldn't fit in their oven, so it was decided to deep fry the turkey. I'd had fried turkey before, it was very good, but not a bird of that size. A decent percentage of people who attempt to fry turkeys only succeed at setting their house on fire. We had to make sure not be one of those. The turkey was too big to be completely submerged in the oil so we actually had to flip it over and brown the other side after it was done cooking. I was the appointed turkey carver and I did the best job I could. I was using a regular knive and I think I could have done better with one of those electric knives that everyone seems to have. It was only the second time for me, the first being at pre-Thanksgiving dinner the previous weekend. I still think the turkey would have fit in the oven...

               Dad and Todd watching the fryer

               The cooked-but-not-completely-finished turkey

Rachelle and I sat at the kids table with my parents. Claire took an uber-nap and slept through dinner. She emerged in time for dessert and had her own turkey with cranberry baby food.

               Claire pondering what to do with her chocolate turkey

               She decided to vandalize my passed-out dad with it

My uncle actually ended up getting sick and not being able to make it to my parents' house. I was sad about this, it's been a long time since I've seen him and I think Claire was only 3 months old the last time he saw her. I guess having the get-together at my parents' place worked out well then, the only thing worse than having to go over someone's house when your sick is having everyone at your house when you're sick. I hope he's feeling better.