The worst possible thing happened at Thanksgiving, from a blogger’s point of view.
Everything went fine.
Moloch and his wife drove up on Wednesday night, so as to roust me out of bed early, to remind me that Turkeys Take Time. With their supervision I set about the mighty enterprise, le grande ouvre, den store gjerning.
And it was a total success. I followed Martha Stewart’s turkey instructions (brother Baal had sent me a link to her site), and the result was as perfect a turkey as I’ve ever enjoyed. I don’t think I’ll go to the extent of following her giblet gravy recipe again in the future (it was a lot of work and I didn’t like it any better than the kind we usually make), but even I, who live to make jokes about myself, can’t find any reason to quibble.
It was, in fact, pretty much the kind of holiday experience I’d hoped to facilitate when I bought a house that could be a central holiday gathering place for the Walker clan. Blithering Heights is a little cramped with more than five people in it at once, but we got along well in the close quarters. Not so much as a political or theological discussion arose to trouble the waters.
We laughed loudly when The Oldest Niece spoke to her boyfriend on the phone thus:
TON: “I’m here in Minneapolis with my family.”
BF: (Unheard)
TON: “Yeah, well, you don’t know my family.”
(Fill in the blank yourself.)
We also had some laughs when The Oldest Nephew brought out his newly purchased Wii gaming box and hooked it up to my TV. He showed us the games he had. Moloch’s wife showed remarkable enthusiasm playing the boxing game against Moloch. I averted my eyes, wounded by this gratuitous display of virtual domestic violence. But Mrs. Moloch seemed to enjoy herself a whole lot.
The best part of the Wii system, in my opinion, was the opportunity to create avatars of ourselves. We worked as a committee to caricature each one of us in turn, and we got some remarkable likenesses. My avatar, everyone agreed, was the most successful, largely because my hair and beard are fairly distinctive. Smooth-faced kids are the toughest.
I’m sorry that this report isn’t as entertaining as a “drop-kick the turkey” Thanksgiving horror story would be.
But not very sorry.
The only thing eventful about my holidays are the small children who can’t make it to the bathroom in time.
That’s Cool.
Our holiday was very uneventful as well… until 4:30 at which time we decided to go to a friend’s after all – and we were leaving at 5! So we packed up the van and headed across town to play games. Family of six visits family of seven who have also invited many others.
Lots of teenagers/young adults, plus a few grown-ups, and a very competitive game of Cranium Turbo. (not as good as Scrabble -but appeals to more people) And of course, scads of small children – about half of whom were mine – getting into things.
The other highlight of my evening was explaining in depth why the new Pride and Prejudice movie is anathema and that people of taste and quality swear allegiance only to the A&E version.
My husband had to drag me out close to 11 for our half hour drive home. Very very tired now…
Ah, I know what you mean. Sometimes I think I wish I had a rougher life to make my writing better and more meaningful. But then I think I’m stupid and thank the Lord that reality is otherwise.
You gave a perfect tip on pumpkin pie, too. We tried the Sacred Walker recipe and were richly (pun intended) rewarded. Wonderful change to the old standard. Send it to the egg council people. More eggs make everything better.
Glad your thanksgiving went so well, Lars-you deserved it 🙂
Very good, Lars. (in regard to your great cooking skills.) 🙂 Applause!
Also glad you had such a fun time hosting and playing with your family. derringdo is right, you do deserve it.
Glad you liked the pie, Hunter. Thanks to the rest for your support.