Last Minute Thanksgiving

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. Hubby and I invited his parents to spend the day with us. They obliged and brought offerings of apple pie, cranberry wine, a cheese ball and the most beautiful home-made dinner rolls I've laid eyes on. We had initially planned on going to our neighbors for the T-day meal. On Wednesday I received a call with the news that my neighbor had come down with the flu and the dinner was off. My neighbor, a perfect southern belle, is a master at entertaining and always cooks enough for a small army. It is a labor of love so was sad to hear she had fallen ill. I'm sure she was disappointed.

I surprisingly didn't go into my usual flurry of worry over the last minute meal I had to prepare. We went to the grocery store on Wednesday night and picked up a thawed turkey, ingredients for dressing and ice cream for the pie. Turkey was in the oven by 9:00am on Thursday. My Mother-in-law taught me how to make the best dressing - bonus! And the timing was right on - everything was done at the same time.

I think these meals are getting easier with age. I can remember stressing and fussing for a week beforehand only to be disappointed when it took a mere 20 minutes to devour the food. So I've decided these family meals are going to be easy like this from now on. No huge planning. No having 4 different vegetables. No more 3 different flavors of pie. Be prepared family because from now on, you gets what you gets. Oh, and from now on, after the dishes are done, I'm disappearing for an hour to take a nap.