Thanksgiving, Xmas....the two times you can pretty much count on a turkey dinner. I actually know people that 'know people' that have to have two or three turkey dinners due to extra relatives. I consider them super lucky...its honestly my fave meal. I LOVE turkey dinner. But now that I am on my own I have to depend on others to help me make it happen.
Its a tradition more than a meal. I remember in many days gone by, when I was young, my mother getting up basically in the middle of the night to stuff a monstrous bird and getting it into the oven. By the time we got up in the morning that amazing turkey odour would permeate every room of the house.
I also remember one year more recently the power went off! My dad took that turkey outside to the chopping block and hacked it to pieces! Then they stoked up a big fire in the fireplace and we cooked the turkey pieces in it! I mean its Thanksgiving!!! Gotta have that turkey!!!
But back to those good old days, my mom, expecting our aunt and her family for dinner around four in the afternoon, would start preparing the living room. Upstairs from the basement would come the ping pong table and at the end a small card table would be set up. The tables would completely fill the living room. She would set the table with the 'good' dishes...the ones that had brown specks all over them like someone had sneezed whilst eating a bran muffin. We would have napkins and if we were super really lucky there would be pull crackers.
Soon everyone would arrive and we would squish around the tables, the little ones at the card table, and Dad and Uncle Lowell would be making funny teasing jokes. We were all sober as we belonged to a religion that didn't allow drinking...thank god. It was just good clean fun and delicious food. And I, being very young, had no idea that to successfully produce this awesome traditional event was insane huge work executed by our mother and aunt.
Okay I am about to throw my awesome sister and her kin under the bus. Hopefully in the spirit of thanksgiving they will forgive me!
So Kathy, Jo and Craig and I were out for lunch the other day and I heard the dreaded words. No turkey this year (second time in two years). Neither Kathy nor Craig like turkey. My heart kind of stopped a little and my ears perked up. Keep in mind this is absolutely NOT my dinner show and I have no right to object or even voice an opinion.
Jocelyn suddenly remembered something. "We still have that coupon for a taco party for 22!" Taco party for 22. Oh jeez. Now don't get me wrong I love tacos and I love no work so there was sure an upside to this, but, the turkey, the stuffing, the cranberry, the turkey smell, the back ache at the end of the day, the the the.....
So Saturday we all gathered at Craig and Jo's and had tacos for thanksgiving. The best part of the whole day though was the gathering. The kids were running around and so wonderful, the games we played, the pumpkin pie we sat at the table and shared, the conversations, the rellies we don't see too often, all that happened traditionally and the tacos didn't matter until the next day.
I arose fairly early and realized I had a huge hankering for a turkey dinner. I love turkey dinners. So when the kids got up, (did I mention Myles and April were here?) I suggested that we go out that night for a turkey dinner. They were totally happy with that. And we invited Kathy and Kerry to join us to make it really homey and thanksgivingy. I was excited!!!
We were invited to Kathys first for before dinner drinks. I had planned that we would go to Swiss Chalet. Bill and I used to get awesome turkey dinners there at holiday times.
Well, sipping a delicious Caesar, Kerry suggested I call Swiss Chalet ahead to make sure they were open, serving Turkey dinner and had room. And so I did and guess what? They were NOT serving turkey dinner. Ahhhhhhh!!!! So White Spot was suggested, they always have turkey dinner. "I don't like White Spot" whined April. Okay no White Spot. Well how about Harolds...they make amazing food. So I phone them and yes they serve turkey dinner, but not until tomorrow. Well then how about Denny's I suggest. I like Denny's. A resounding NO from pretty much everybody. Bunch of snobs!!!
Then someone suggested Scotts Inn and restaurant. I phone them. No answer, until it went back to the reception at the inn, not the restaurant. Yes they had turkey he thinks and the restaurant is super busy but call back in fifteen minutes to talk to the restaurant. So we call back and the same thing happened and the guy "thinks" there is turkey and room for us. Tells us to call back. The last call I thought I was talking to the right guy, but I guess I wasn't and everybody is yelling at me to tell the guy something (it was on speaker) and I got mad and they got mad and fuckadoodle what a gong show!!!!! Finally Myles phoned to find out exactly what I had found out. So we ended up back at White Spot. Okay April finally agrees.
Then as we were discussing driving arrangements etc... (keep in mind all this chit chat about locations and ridiculous phone calls took about a frigging hour) we discovered it had started to rain. And then one of them says, 'well I hope you don't mind but I will be ordering something other than turkey". Me too, me too, me too the others chimed in. What???? I am the only one trying to find a turkey dinner?
So we stayed home and ordered Chinese food.
Today after the kids left I went out and got a hungry man tv turkey dinner. I said I wasn't a snob...Denny's , TV dinners...I don't care, turkey is turkey and it was delicious!!! I am happy! TTYL
TTYL
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