The Ginormous Turkey

The story of this Thanksgiving starts with a plan to travel for the holidays. Somewhere along the way, I realized that traveling for Thanksgiving (which I have avoided like the plague for 12 years of living in Boston), being 32 weeks pregnant and having a 2 year old to contend with was not such a hot idea. The plans I'd made with my brothers and parents to see each other for the holiday season got cancelled and instead I begged my parents to come up to see me. They agreed! Yay! Also, my mother-in-law, after seeing our gorgeously large new dining room, graciously passed the Thanksgiving hosting to us. Yay.....well except for one thing, I have no idea how to do Thanksgiving!

My normal Thanksgiving, I show up at some one's house, maybe with a dish that I've made, eat and leave. This hosting thing was a whole different ball game. Not only did we have tons more responsibility then usual, but I had the anxiety of finally being a grown up. Forget buying property, getting married and having kids....the true mark of crossing over to adulthood is hosting a major family holiday!

The next installment of this Thanksgiving story is about the turkey. Now, I'm not sure where the miscommunication was, but I had been told that my in-laws were taking care of all things turkey - purchase, cooking and carving. A couple of weeks before the big day, I found out this was not the case so we were left to find a pretty big turkey (to feed 20 people) with not a lot of time. I happened to find this out before a friend, who had missed the house warming party, came over for a visit. She had just returned from a year's sabbatical going to a farm school in western Mass. That farm was selling their turkey's for the holidays so she gave us a number to call. We called, we reserved on of their "bigger" turkey's that would be 20-25 pounds (the guys had all been shipped off for processing so they didn't know the exact weights).

The plan was then to go pick it up as a family and make it a fun event by touring the farm. Once we found out the farm was pretty much void of animals or growing things, that plan didn't sound so fun. So, I took an afternoon off, ran errands with Dylan while Mike made the 3 hour (!) round trip. When he returned with the bird, he said they told him those that weren't marked were more than 30 pounds....guess whose bird wasn't marked? Dying of curiosity, we headed upstairs to lay the bird on our currently under utilized scale (yeah, I'm not stepping on that thing often these days).

Do you see that? 34 1/2 pounds!!!

That farm raised turkey must have been one fat, happy guy. Biggest darned thing I'd ever seen! Well, that was Monday and it was frozen so the thawing had to start immediately. It found it's home for the next couple of days in the guest bedroom bathtub - just the welcome that I'm sure my parents were hoping for when they arrived the next day!

Fast forward a couple of days, after our trip to the Enchanted Village, and Mike and my parents were hard at work on meal prep while I played with Dylan and tried not to over extend myself. Those 3 prepped the turkey for cooking, wrapped it for safety and stuck it in the cool garage overnight (that thing was definitely not fitting in the refrigerator!). Mike woke bright and early - 5:40 am to be exact - to preheat the oven and get that bird cooking by 6am. That's a lot of pounds of turkey that need to be cooked through and that takes many, many hours.

Around 7, Dylan and I got up, showered and started with Mike and my parents on getting the house ready for the festivities. I stayed extremely busy finding linens, directing furniture re-arrangements, setting the table, cleaning for company and who knows what else. But, I was crazy busy all that day and yet, I didn't cook a thing! Mike and my parents were the ones handling making all the tasty food we were making for the day. We made a lot and folks were bringing a lot - there was A LOT of food ready to be eaten by the time folks arrived around 2.

Mike, Betsy (mother-in-law), Dad, Tom (father-in-law) and Aunt Kathy Doing Prep

Somewhere between 2:30 and 3 when our online research told us the bird should be ready it was! And it looked mighty pretty.

Then we just had to wait for the gravy to get prepared and it would be time to dig in!

Adults Waiting For Dinner

How the Kids Spent Their Time Waiting

We started the feast around 3:30 and man was it a feast! We all stuffed ourselves silly and yet it looked like we barely put a dent in all of that food. No one, and I mean no one, could even think about dessert at that point.

The Table is Set!

5 of 6 Kiddos Ready to Eat

One Side of the Table

And the Other

Then came the long clean up effort. With so many leftovers, it was quite a chore to get everything divvied up and packed away. A few folks took brave turns at the sink rinsing off and quickly moving left to right to get both of our dishwashers loaded up. Other than loading just a few things in the dishwasher, I didn't do any cleaning. Never fear dear friends, I was not at all idle. Being the homeowner and hostess, I was staying quite busy directing all the madness. I tell ya though, our family can really clean up a storm. Almost every single dish was taken care of within the hour after we finished eating. With all that activity, a few of us even worked off enough food to make room for a little dessert.

Check Out The Dessert Spread!

After dessert and another round of clean up, food coma was deeply setting in and it was time to call it a day. But, not before trying to get a group picture. With 2 cameras and 2 seasoned self timer photographers, it should not have been a difficult task. However, technology was a little much for my Mom and Mike after our long day so it took some fumbling. Finally, though, we were able to get some group shops. And, if we take bits and pieces from each one, we'd have a pretty good group photo of everyone (without odd expressions).

Still Trying to Figure Out The Self Timer Function

Some Good Smiles, Some Goofy Faces
Top Row - Dad, Tom, Jim, Joe, Jamon
Middle Row - Mom, Betsy, Kathy, Kristina, Maureen, Gretchen
Bottom Row (Kids) - Corwin, Emily, Patrick, Jacob, Derek
Couch Level - Mike, Me and Dylan

Some Other Good Smiles and Some Other Goofy Faces

Mostly Nice Smiles (Except for Patrick)

Are we done yet? Totally giving up and going kooky. 

It was definitely a great day and a great learning experience for us. As we're now the designated Thanksgiving house, we know that there a few things we need to get to improve upon the experience for all. Number one on that list is coffee for the coffee drinkers. Mike and I don't ever partake in a cuppa joe so we didn't even think about it but there were a few disappointed folks that didn't get their favorite post dinner treat. Also, we need more serving dishes. I thought we had a lot but with that much food, what we had did not cover all the bases.

But I did plan fun kid activities, including sticker fun.

It was a great day that was really exhausting. I love hosting but being on my feet and crazy busy all day took its toll and I desperately needed a day to recuperate. Unfortunately, I didn't get that as I had to work the following day. Nor did I get it the next few days when my parents were itching to help us get some projects done around the house. Their plane took off back to Texas this morning. And, while I'm going to miss them terribly and really don't want them to leave after what felt like a quick trip (as it always does), I'm also a bit relieved that I get to curl up on the couch tonight, veg out with some tv and then have an early bedtime!

Christmas Before Thanksgiving

Last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, my office closed early. With my parents in town, I thought it would be fun to mash in as much holiday stuff as we could. So Mike, Dylan and my parents were to pick me up at closing time and we were going to head down to a local chain furniture store, Jordan's, to see the Enchanted Village. It's a Boston tradition going back decades and was recently "saved" (purchased) but this furniture store and restored for public viewing again.

The exhibit is old timey store fronts and scenes with moving statues showing holiday fun. Mike and I first took Dylan to see it last year. Well, we happened to be shopping in that area of the particular store a little over a month ago and Dylan pointed to the back (where the entrance to the village was) and said "go see Santa." There were no Christmas decorations to be seen or other indications of the Enchanted Village so we were a bit awestruck that he remembered going there over a year ago. That child's memory is stunning! I let him know that Santa wasn't there yet but we would come back and see him when he was. Staying true to my promise, it was first on our holiday to do list.

About an hour before we were supposed to meet up and go down there, I called my OB's office to just talk to them about a pregnancy symptom I was experiencing that I didn't have in my first pregnancy. I figured it would weigh on my mind during the holidays and I might as well call to get confirmation that it was fine. Unfortunately, that call prompted a trip into the doctor, followed by a non-stress test. The gang met me at the hospital instead and we all got to listen to the baby's heartbeat and kicking about while I was hooked up to the monitors for 20 minutes. All was fine. So just an hour after our planned departure, we were on the road. The delay ended up being a good thing. One for piece of mind and two because the horrible traffic that was on the road when I was heading into the doctor's had cleared up.

I had no idea if the place would be a mob scene or dead, but we were in luck - no line and no crowds! We got there, took our green screen group picture and headed into the exhibit.

Dylan loved looking at all the details of the scene, as did Mike, my parents and I. They also created the occasional "snow" with a bubble machine, but Dylan didn't really know what to think of that. I thought it was cool!

Ice Cream Shop

A Horse on the Street

Lots of Dogs and Cats at the Pet Store

What I got when I asked for a smile. What a goof!

SANTA!!

Post Office

The Bear Scene at the Front of the Furniture Store

As we drove back to our neck of the woods, we talked with Dylan about everything we had seen at the Enchanted Village. He's repeated that list in the last few days as well. Definitely a fun time for him. With our bellies rumbling, I took my parents somewhere for a real treat - New England Mexican food! Just what every Texan wants to experience. The food at the restaurant isn't spectacular (surprise, surprise), but it's a family friendly place and close to home so it worked out great for us.

I'm really glad we got to start off the holiday season with such a positive experience. The Enchanted Village is definitely a must do on our holiday activity list for future years. Once we were home from dinner, it was time to start more holiday "fun"......Thanksgiving preparations! We were hosting and there was much to be done to get ready for Thursday.

Belly Shot - 32 Weeks

The last week has been a very busy one and I'll have some posts ready about it this week.

One thing we finally got around to last week as well was the first "official" belly shot of this pregnancy. Yeah, it's only taken us 32 weeks to do this. When pregnant with Dylan, we took one at least every few weeks. I can't imagine what's been occupying my time enough to have delayed this so long! ;-)

So, without further delay, this is what I looked like around Wednesday last week. Yeah, this is why people keep expecting me to answer "tomorrow" when they ask when I'm due. Nope, still a little under 8 weeks to go!

My Boys

Last night I picked my parents up from the airport and spent almost 2 hours trying to get them back to our house in the most ridiculous traffic. Today, they're at the house with Mike and Dylan doing Thanksgiving prep and will be picking me up from my early release day of work for some holiday fun. I'm sure I'll post about what I know will be a fun afternoon soon. For now, I'd like to take a minute to talk about my boys.

Mike loves soccer. After his 2nd back surgery 2 years ago, he gave up playing it for a while but remained the coach for his Over the Hill (over 30) team. After feeling great and focusing on back physical therapy exercises for a year plus, he couldn't resist the call of the game anymore. Last Spring, not only was he still coaching the team, but he was back on the field. He spends a lot of time and effort on this team and he really enjoys it. I'm really glad he loves it so much but miss spending time with him on Sundays as his pre-game, game and post game activities take up the majority of those days. Well, last weekend all of his and his team's hard work paid off. They won the championship for their division. And, he gets to keep the pretty trophy they earned.

Dylan's pretty excited about the trophy too and likes to sit down with it and point out all of it's features - the "statue," soccer ball and star. I'm pretty excited that I've reclaimed having my husband around on the weekend.

The only upside to Mike not being around on Sundays is that Dylan and I get some rarely had one on one time together. Sometimes we'll go for a walk to a special breakfast, play at the park or run some errands. This past Sunday, with much to be done in preparation for my parents arrival and hosting Thanksgiving, we ran some errands. My car hadn't seen the inside of a car wash in sometime so we took it for a much needed bath. Dylan absolutely loved going through the car wash! I'm trying to convince Mike to take his car in soon so that the boys can enjoy that experience together too. We then did a couple of other shopping stops, one of which was at one of my favorite stores - the Container Store. This place is basically like a toy store for me. So many fun things to organize with! Yeah, totally brings out my type A personality. Anyway, one of the items I picked up there was a new laundry basket and Dylan thought it made a great place to hide. He was very amused by this for a while in the store and a lot of other shoppers were amused by it as well.

Where's Dylan?

He and I also stopped in at the library to pick up some books I had reserved. Well, I also thought it time to start teaching Dylan about checking out books so I picked out a few board books (ie indestructible) for him to borrow. I picked them out because he was only interested in the toys the children's area of the library had until we got back in the car. Then he picked up one of the books and was engrossed in it for a while.

My Library Jedi (My sweater fits him well, huh?)

Another stop on our excursion was Lowe's. We have both a Lowe's and a Home Depot close to our house so it just depends on what route we're on that determines at which one we stop. This day was Lowe's. Now, Dylan usually loves these places for the car shopping carts he gets to ride in. This time of year, though, they have a much bigger draw - Christmas decorations! He could sit and stare at all the inflatable characters and other moving\singing items they stock all day long. I think he's going to have a good time over the next month scouting out decorations in yards. And last night, when my parents arrived and he was "catching up" with them the only way he knows how - by spitting out all the words for things that interest him right now. He started listing all of the fun things he likes to see at Lowe's - Big Santa, Winnie the Pooh, Snoopy, M&M, Reindeer - exciting stuff! I'm very much looking forward to this holiday season with him. I'm probably just as (or more) anxious than him to pull out the Christmas decorations. That will be happening on Friday!

Kids always seems to have some catch phrase they're currently stuck on. Right now, Dylan's is "OK." He uses it a lot in situations where he used to answer yes. What really cracks me up about it though is the way he almost seems to be manipulating us with it. Very often, he'll say something and we'll repeat it to make sure we understood what he said. If we got it right, he used to say "yes" but now he answers "OK." So, for example, if he says something like "I want go outside" and we'll reply "Do you want to go outside?" he'll respond with "OK" and it almost feels like he's implying "why yes, what a nice idea you just proposed to me...I suppose I'm OK with going along with your plan." It just really gives me the giggles when he does that.

And that is what my boys are up to these days! I think they're pretty great...can you tell?

The Baby's New Dresser\Changing Table

For Dylan's room, our "changing table" is a low dresser from Mike's grandfather's bedroom set that we stuck a changing pad on top of. It also houses all of Dylan's clothes. Since Dylan's not potty trained and we'd still use the dresser for storage, we needed to find a changing table to put in the baby's room. At this time challenged point in our lives, I wasn't at all opposed to buying something new, but didn't see anything of quality that I particularly liked. So right after we moved, I made a couple of trips to some local thrift stores. I found the perfect height dresser on one of these trips for the bargain price of 22 dollars...it just needed a little face lift.

Since I purchased it, it's been waiting in the garage patiently for a little attention.  A few weeks ago I got to Home Depot to purchase some supplies for its transformation - a respirator mask for me, sanding blocks, spray primer and cans of spray paint. Then the following weekend took advantage of some good weather, dragged it onto the driveway and gave it a good sanding. Of course, it wasn't until I was mostly through this process that it dawned on me I hadn't taken any before pictures. Shame on me. So here are the in progress pictures.

Dresser - Already Sanded

Drawers - 1 Down 2 To Go

Close Up Of Old Hardware
It was missing some and others were broken so these definitely had to be replaced.

It would be another week before I got the paint out to prime. I started painting the weekend before last, did some more coats - 2 of primer and 4 or 5 of spray paint (some of those were started immediately after finishing the previous coat so it sounds like more than it was) and then finished up over this last weekend. The new hardware I'd purchased went on quickly ($10) and then Dylan and I bought some nice liners for it on a shopping trip on Sunday. Sunday night, I got all the drawers cleaned out well and the liners cut to size. Yesterday, my strong husband got the dresser moved to its new home.

And here it is! Our custom made dresser\changing table all for the bargain price of around $60 (dresser, hardware, drawer liners and paint).

Last Minute Fish Plans

Last Friday, I got an email from a friend of mine that lives in NH (no where near our place there) and I rarely get to see. She and her boys had plans to go to the New England Aquarium on Saturday with her sister's family but her sister had to bail last minute. Were we interested in joining them? When my friend Rachel was here for a visit a few weeks ago, Mike and Dylan got to go with her and I must admit, I was a bit jealous. So I was happy to have this last minute excuse to go, spend some time with my guys at the aquarium and get to spend some time with a good friend.

Saturday morning, we got ready, had breakfast, and headed into downtown to meet up with Jessica, her husband Chris and their son Sammy. They had taken a bus down from NH and had beat us there so they were ready to get in and see some sea life when we got there.

Dylan's been a bit obsessed with watching the Happy Feet Two trailer on Mike's iPhone so getting to see the penguins as soon as we walked in the door was a great treat.

We strolled around the aquarium and let the little boys stop where they were interested in stopping. With Jess and I both having pregnant bellies, Mike and Chris had the pleasure of lifting up the boys to see the tanks more up close and personal.

While the guys were doing the heavy lifting, Jess and I got a chance to chat a little bit. For many of my early Boston years, Jess was one of my closest friends. She then moved to NH for grad school, met Chris and stayed. Even though she's just over an hours drive away, we rarely get the opportunity to hang out so it was just great to get to spend some time face to face.

We didn't get any pictures of it, but I got to experience the newest Shark and Ray Touch Tank for the first time. It was pretty awesome! Dylan always loves making new friends so he had a fun time hanging out near Sammy. Dylan's still more into parallel play, but we always had to be sure that Sammy was near by. Of course, it wasn't until as we were getting ready to leave that we got a group picture. It was Dylan's nap time and Sammy had already had an adventurous day. They were pretty tired!

Jessica, Chris, Sammy, Me and Dylan (Mike was our Photographer)

I just love it when last minute plans like these fall into place. It was really a great Saturday treat! Especially since the rest of the day was spent unpacking some more boxes. I swear those things keep multiplying while I'm gone. As soon as I feel like we're mostly settled, I realize there has been stuff that wasn't immediately needed that was left for last. It's always the stuff that's time consuming to get out and organized too. So, the unpacking continues!