Sorry for those of you who actually visit here on a regular basis, who may have been looking for updates. Life since Wednesday afternoon has been a blur. It's only Saturday right now but I feel like a week happened between the last post and now.
Doug and Phin are napping, Geoff is out for a walk, Jess left about 90 minutes ago. It all feels so done and over. Weird.
Here's the recap, to the best of my recollection!
Jess arrived Wednesday afternoon, after a small fender bender north of Baltimore, as I mentioned. Doug and Jess both went out and assessed the damage in the daylight. The bumper will probably need to be replaced, but maybe a good Guster is for Lovers bumper sticker will be the solution.
Doug and Geoff brought the dining table that Doug uses as a desk up from the basement. It is smaller than the one we use up here, so they didn't line up together just right but it was close enough for jazz, as they say. Doug had purchased 2 heavy duty disposable tablecloths, so we were all set to disappear the flaws between the pieces of furniture. I baked 2 pumpkin pies and 1 apple. Doug made his jello salad and his Waldorf salad. We did everything we could to hit the ground running.
Our guests would be arriving at 1pm-ish. We needed to be ready. Linda went to bed early, I think I was up until 1:30. Morning was going to come way early.
Doug got up early, per his usual Thanksgiving dinner behaviours, and got the turkey prepped and in the oven. Calm before the storm. Doug sent Geoff out for more ice, more beer, more wine (Linda and I put a hurt on the collection we had on Wednesday night, ha). I think I slept until 9. Doug made just enough noise in the hallway to wake me, and I knew it was time to be up.
Linda and I did what we could to prepare things to go in the oven for when the turkey came out. We set up the chafing dishes, got the water and sterno going. Geoff peeled the potatoes, and we got them and the carrots going on the stove. I boiled eggs in the morning and set them aside in an ice bath so Linda could make deviled eggs. She pre-prepped her spinach balls so they could go in the oven when the turkey came out.
We got a little crackers, cheese, meats, olives, blah blah blah thing out onto the living room table, and we were on Phineas duty to make sure he didn't chomp anything. Jess set up the tables with the coverings and got the plates out for everyone. We discovered I have silverware for 8, not 9. Ha. I set my plate with a paring knife and a baby fork so everyone else could have what they needed.
Around noon, Doug went out and started the fire pit. I was a little annoyed because I wanted him in the house doing stuff, but then was relieved he and the boy were out of the way. I didn't want the fire pit going, but in the end, it was great because all we had to do was put more wood on it after dinner and sit out and just have our time.
The weather was perfect. Just cool enough to want a fire, warm enough to be out and enjoying it. Thank you God. What bliss.
M&M arrived on time. Doug's cousin and aunt arrived actually close to on time. Surprisingly. Turkey came out of the oven at 12:30 and sat, we had the carrots and mashed potatoes done. Linda makes these little spinach balls so they went in the oven for a half hour. Doug wanted cornbread muffins, so those were popped in, and I did the dressing in the oven instead of on top because the turkey pan was taking up so much space. Timing wise it was all coming together.
Linda loves a shot of people doing cheers cheers clink, darling. So I grabbed this. Jess' eyes are unfortunately closed but they were laughing at us. As you can see, Linda's an expert at this shot!
Linda and I did the gravy - she did the bulk of the work on that with my emulsifier stick mixer. I didn't want to get the blender out because literally everything in the world had already been used in my kitchen... I did not want to pull out yet another thing. So that took a little longer than we wanted but we survived.
Thanksgiving is literally the day that every single bowl, pot, container, utensil, thingie, whatever that I own gets used. It's the best. I get to say to myself pretty much every year "huh. I thought I had a small ladle for the gravy?" or "Jeeze, I really could use some more trivets." This year I had a ladle, and more trivets, so ha! Victory!
The table was ready, set, go.
The chafing dishes were honestly the best idea, and I'm so glad I got them out of storage. Everything that needed to be kept hot was in there, and we portioned out serving bowls for the table and just refilled them as needed. The one that is too big is the mac & cheese, their pan was a scootch bigger than the water tray but it worked.
We tucked in, and a great meal was had by all, I must say. We sat and studied the Jello Cookbook, and had huge laughs at some of the recipes. Doug's jello salad wasn't as good as he'd hoped but everyone ate it and enjoyed it. Even I approved. My only regret is I didn't get a picture of it! dang.
The real hero of the day was my dishwasher and it's wonderful hot one hour cycle. I must have run it six or 7 times during the course of the day, before and after we ate. I had it loaded and full and ready to go right before we sat down to eat but held off until after the meal. A moment of rest and peace for the poor beast.
After dinner, Doug's aunt was freezing and complaining about how cold she was even though I had the door between the living room and kitchen closed. We had the back door open a little so everyone could all come and go out into the yard, and to the beer/drinks. I wasn't in the mood at this point to listen to her complaining (oh, she also got heartburn so we had to take out 10 different medications so she could pick one) I offered her a blanket, and she put her coat on and looked like an eskimo on my couch. She stayed in the living room after the meal, and I think she and Doug's cousin maybe took naps while I was moving around room to room to room to whatever cleaning and doing. They also watched a dog agility competition on TV because she couldn't figure out our remote control, and I couldn't be assed to help.
I wasn't rude, but I sure wasn't like... my usual self.
Jess took some introvert time and went downstairs, Geoff sat watching the dog thing because dogs are awesome, and the rest of us were out at the fire.
The coal bed was amazing, so a few more logs on there and it was still daylight-ish and wonderful. We had our portable speaker and Doug's spotify, we listened to a band that M&M are going to go see here in town in a couple months, and my sister was familiar with them, Geoff came out and we talked about bands we all like.
Not necessarily just Guster. But. They did come up.
Eventually M&M had to go home to get to their dog and feed him, we sent them home with sides because they had a turkey they were going to put out on the smoker on Friday and the sides would all go nice with. Doug's aunt and cousin stayed, and Linda and I sat out by the fire. We talked to our parents, and I sat there thinking about how last year when Linda wanted to take a picture she said "of our last thanksgiving" or something like that. I hoped then that she didn't jinx them. They're still kicking, and maybe the jinx was "our last thanksgiving together." But we can aim for another one someday.
Auntie and Cousin left at I don't know when o'clock. I was too tired to care at that point, but she did need a phone number from me, and so I came in to wish them well on their way.
I went back out to Linda, and we sat with the speaker and my phone playing songs to sing harmony along to. We cruised through some Guster songs, tried some BNL but there isn't a lot there for harmonies, even though it is fun. And she didn't know a lot of the lyrics.
I felt like we were being really loud and I wanted for us to stop singing, but she said that she wanted to keep going, keep singing, because every song we sang kept her a tune further away from thinking about work, and real life, and all the things she has to do.
To sit by the fire and just sing with me. It made me really sad to be the one to call this night to an end.My neighbor two houses down kept turning on her back porch light and would stand there looking at us every time we launched into a song. It wasn't even 10pm, so Linda was right when she said "fuck her, let her call the cops, see if I care..."
And I started laughing thinking about the police report:
Area woman calls cops on two sisters in their 50s singing Simon and Garfunkel by the campfire in their backyard.
Can you imagine the cops rolling up on us sitting around singing by the fire? "Oh sorry, officers, can we just do "Feelin' Groovy" and then we're done?"
We laughed our asses off and finished with "The Boxer" and "Bookends." I wish I'd had Linda turn her video camera on and film the fire for that one, because it was literally just perfect. A perfect note to wrap things up to and go inside.
Doug had gone to bed, Jess was on the couch so we sat and talked to them. Midnight we rolled ourselves to bed. Linda had to get up early to head to NYC for the Guster show at Carnegie Hall, a show I regret not going to but visiting with Jess was just as important but. Shit. Have not felt a conflict over things like that in years.
Here's me and Linz being me and Linz. Sign design courtesy of Jess. I did keep digits on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, but didn't track food and time. Just gave that a break. Back on it now after a lot of mashed potatoes, stuffing, and all the things.
Saturday digits in another entry. I'll let this one cover the whole past couple days.
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