Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful day!

We loved that we could celebrate Thanksgiving with Duncan, Kristin & Curtis and

Kory, Amy, Clarie & Colin!

Four of us already had Covid so we felt like we were a pretty safe group.

Having the children here added the extra energy and fun that every gathering needs.

Sharing the food duties between three different families made the prep enjoyable 

instead of overwhelming and the feast was delicious!

We got started a couple days in advance. I made Kathy's chocolate silk pies.

Also the cranberry sauce.

Getting started on pies

Nick made the stuffing from my old newspaper clipping recipe.
(He chose to wear the mask while cooking.)

You should have seen him chop onions like a true chef. When he got out the second onion, like the recipe calls for, I told him to not use it. I always halve the onions in every recipe. He put his hand up and said, "Mom, I'm making the stuffing." Touche. Turned out delicious! (Even though he omitted the cranberries because, you know, it was his stuffing.) I was thrilled he was happy to help.

I set the table the night before.

No fancy centerpieces. But it looked inviting.

When going to bed, I got a text from my neighbor to three of us who can see each other's homes from our windows. She was thanking us all for our beautiful lights. Her girls love looking out the windows just before bed at the "magic lights." I do too!

Thanksgiving morning, Dan and I took a walk.

We arrived home just in time to start prepping the turkey.

I had the turkey sitting in front of me and had just started cutting open 

the plastic covering when Christopher called via FaceTime.

First he asked if the "sprite in the butt of a chicken" would work on a turkey.

Then he asked if he could substitute Red Bull.

I advised that the sprite was generally for cooking on the grill.

And was the turkey for just him or for others? 

For the District. In that case, hold the Red Bull.

He had volunteered to make the turkey for his District-wide Thanksgiving!

He called at the perfect time for me to walk him through the steps. Find the neck. Find the packet of giblets. Good thing he called because he was pretty sure neither existed.

I was able to show him where to look by demonstrating on my turkey. 

He eventually found them. We each rinsed, patted dry and basted together.

He mentioned he needed to have the turkey to the church in two hours.

Dan did a rush Google search for fast-cooking turkey. Did you know you can cook it at 500?

Meanwhile I wanted to try the turkey in the steam oven. 

We've had great success with chickens so thought turkey couldn't be that much different.

We basted with olive oil, salt, pepper, seasonings and left the juice from the wrapper in the bottom tray (because several people said the steamed turkey doesn't leave much dripping for gravy).

Combination Steam at 355 with the temperature probe set to 165.

After this pic I remembered it needed to be on the rack, not directly in the tray.

The 16 lb. turkey was golden brown and cooked through in 1 hour 10 minutes!!

We let it rest 40 minutes before carving.

You couldn't get any easier or faster. I'll totally do this again for a big group!

Just after the turkey was finished, everyone else showed up.

Kristin brought pumpkin pies, cherry pie, pecan pie, corn and green bean casserole,

rolls and mashed potatoes.

Kory and Amy brought chocolate flan cake and sweet potatoes.

Dan made the gravy while I made the salad. Nick made his special lemonade.

Everything was delicious!

Dan's funny face angle is due to a sty that surprised him yesterday and clearly making him subconsciously hid that side of his face! I keep telling him it's fine! 

 The food was wonderful. Being together was even better. We haven't seen Kory and Amy and the kids for a while which made our celebration extra special. And, they're engaged! 

After they left, we all piled in the truck and took food and pie to Aunt Marge. Then finished the evening watching What's Up Doc with Barbra Streisand and Tatum O'Neal. It's one of the "other" Shaeffer's favorites. I LOVE having a favorite movie and getting to share it with someone else! We loved that they wanted to stay and watch together! 

This whole week has been special working on #givethanks instagram and blog posts and having my feed filled with positive messages of gratitude. We don't always know the hard things that people have gone through, but I do know people who participated who have lost babies, had cancer, infertility, never married, never had children, unfaithful spouses--just in the last year. 

It's a lot due to the optimistic family I was raised in and the propensity to look for the good,
but I believe we can always find many things to be grateful for.

I am grateful that even in the midst of a pandemic, we had people to gather with, delicious food, plenty of it, laughs, recovery from sickness and hope for gathering in larger groups in the future!!