Happy Thanksgiving

Preparations for Thanksgiving 2007 started much, much earlier than usual at our house. Early in the year Dad came up with a brilliant idea: "Let's raise our own turkeys!" My prolonged, loud groanings and protests did no good. On May 7th, we received 5 little turkeys into our home (literally). They lived for a few weeks in a box with a warming light on them. I must admit they were a teeny-tiny bit cute when they were little like this. One of them died, but the other four decided to stick it out. :)

For the past 6 months they have been living in their pen in our backyard. I can take no credit for their care because I provided no care for them. I did absolutely nothing to speak of which aided in their well-being. :) The rest of the family fed and watered them. If the girls would be playing with them (when they were smaller) I would say, "Don't play with your food!". The little fowls have grown larger and larger and their brains have grown smaller and smaller. Dad says they are completely stupid. At this point they look like the turkeys in the picture below (those are not our turkeys - neither are the ones in the picture up above). Dad had planned to butcher them a few weeks ago so we could eat one before Thanksgiving and see how it tasted. But with everything that transpired with Grandpa our plans changed a little, so there we were the weekend before Thanksgiving and none of the turkeys had met their end yet. Last Saturday, Dad picked the smallest turkey and chopped its head off. Mom and Dad plucked its feathers and did all the other stuff that you have to do (I, conveniently, was at work). You have never seen such a large bird. I opened the refridgerator door and there, taking up a whole shelf was the turkey. It weighed in at 28 pounds!!

On Monday, Mom wanted to cook this turkey so that if it was bad tasting or tough we could still have time to get a good 'ol Butterball. Out came the roasting pan. In went the turkey . . . kind of. This little dude wouldn't fit in the pan. It's legs and stuff were bulging over the sides (in picture below he's in a clean, new trash bag because we didn't have any other bag to put him in). Now we had a dilemna. We were going to have to buy a new pan to cook this turkey.

So, the search for a new pan began. I went food shopping at Wal-Mart and looked for a pan there, but there was nothing big enough. While I was gone, Mom called different friends about pan sizes and she called like 2 million stores trying to find who had one big enough. We finally found that Bed, Bath and Beyond had a pan that supposedly fit turkeys up to 30 pounds. So, off I went to the other side of town to see if the pan was truly big enough. I brought our roasting pan into the store with me so I could make sure that we bought one bigger than ours. After much rigermarole (sp?) we finally decided on this one.

By the time I got home with the new pan it was evening and Mom wanted to have it cooked that night because she wanted to take some up to Grandma on Tuesday. So began the ordeal of cooking the turkey. Remember how much it weighed - it was a two-person job.

After a couple of hours in the oven it was looking (and smelling) quite tasty!

Mom didn't want to go to bed with it in the oven so she was awake and every so often she would come in and wake me up so we could check the turkey. It sounds strange, but you must remember it took two of us to safely get the bird in and out of the oven! :) Finally, around 2:00 in the morning we decided it was done. We took it out of the oven to cool. We set a timer and got up about 3:00 when it was sufficiently cooled to put it in the fridge.

If you've ever wondered how bad we look a 1:35 in the morning . . . wonder no more. :)

I should mention that the turkey tastes terrific. That's a good thing, too, since we have 3 more turkeys to kill and this was the smallest one. We'll be eating turkey all year!! And even though I didn't help raising them, Mom said I earned my turkey dinner by helping haul it into and out of the oven!! :)

Since it is Thanksgiving, I wanted to mention a few things I'm grateful for. I am thankful for the presence of God in my life. I am thankful that I have had so many years to spend at home with my family. I am thankful that we get along and enjoy each others company. I am thankful for good health and provision for my needs and lots of my wants. "The Lord has done great things for me. I am glad" (Psalm 126:3).