Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving, All! Wow, what a week! I have been cooking all week. It's been so much fun! Monday I cleaned out both refrigerators. (Yuck! Definitely needed to be done!) My new friend, Cat, came over and had coffee with me while I made the corn bread for the stuffing and the ginger crisp crust for the pumpkin cheese cake. That was fun. I can't wait for her to move out here so we can hang out more!
I had to work Tuesday. I thought I would get some stuff done after work but that didn't really happen. I was wiped. We had a busy day!
Wednesday I put the stuffing together and baked it up until the last 15 minutes. Kenya stole a half pound of uncooked bacon when I turned my back for 2 seconds!! She was fast! I think she inhaled it instead of chewing it! I made the apple crumb pie. I made the pumpkin swirl cheese cake. I worked on the layered jello. We had a CRISIS with the jello!! I lost one of the orange jello's!!!!! Had I realized I was short a box of orange jello (I bought two of them at the store--I know I did!! Those darn Borrowers!), I would have skipped orange and come back to it later. BUT I had already done my first layer of orange and needed to do the second layer. (Did I mention orange is only the 2nd color?! I use 6 colors, 2 layers of each, an hour for each layer--one clear layer and one opaque layer.) I panicked and tried to Google-talk and call Ralph. He was in an intense editing session and couldn't help me. I was TRAPPED at home and short one orange jello!!!! This was not to be borne! All my careful planning foiled because of a rogue orange jello!!! Thankfully, my friend, Kala, bailed me out and brought me an orange jello (and got stuck helping me carry very heavy furniture upstairs as a thank you). Now, a rational, non-panicking person, would have gone next door and asked her nice neighbor, Tanya (who has two small children), for an orange jello. I'm sure she probably has some. If not, the nice grandmother, Dee, on the other side of me surely had some as well. But I was not rational--I still had 9 hours of jello and was MISSING AN ORANGE JELLO!!! Who can be rational at such a time?! Anyway, that only set me back two hours and then I was back in business. I was able to make my Apricot-Cranberry Sauce. I also got all the ingredients for the turkey measured out and put together in the fridge. Whew!
Then I took a pause for a wonderful dinner out with our dear friend Dan, his girl Cat and his brother and sister-in-law. We went to one of our favorite restaurant's, Troni's. Troni's is a locally, family owned Italian bistro. We eat there/get take out from there so much the guys are all on a first name basis with Ralph. It was like old home week for him. It was kinda funny. It doesn't look like much on the outside, but as soon as you step inside and get a whiff of the place, you know it's gonna be good. We had some great food and great conversation and then it was back to the grind.
When we got back, I started to work on the jello again and baked buns and rearranged the dining room. My poor husband had come home from a long day (week) of work expecting a nice few days off. What he found was a house in chaos because I am my mother's daughter. The only way to know a room is clean is to rearrange it (obviously). So, that's what I did. It looks great too, by the way. I also set the table.
We got up this morning and cleaned the house (it's impossible to clean the day before when you live with a hairy beast--Kenya, not Ralph). All I had to do this AM was the sweet and mashed potatoes and cook the turkey. Not bad, really. The last hour or so was quite busy getting everything pulled together--esp. in my tiny kitchen. It was so much fun sitting down to dinner with family, an old friend and a new friend. It was a good day. We capped it off by calling home to MN and getting to talk to EVERYONE there (including a cousin's new boyfriend). It was almost like being there--not quite, but it helped to feel a little more connected.
Here's some pics of our day. Enjoy!