Turkey Day

I was feeling a bit blue about Thanksgiving this year. I longed for an old-fashioned holiday with my crazy family and the chaos that ensues when we all get together (fun, laughter, chores, unplanned disasters, silliness, friendship, love.) I don't understand, or particularly enjoy, holidays without some element of sweet, perfect chaos.

Enter yesterday. I started off my day with chocolate chip pancakes made by Venessa (Jon's in the shape of an airplane, mine a flower) and all I had to do was bring six strips of bacon. Follow that by persuading Jon to crawl up in her attic to retrieve her Christmas tree (a 9-ft behemoth she hasn't admired in several years). While we had him up there, we might as well empty out the rest and save him the trouble of making a second trip later. And as long as he was already hot and sweaty, he might as well investigate that outdoor storage shed that may or may not house tree rats. Thankfully, it didn't. Fun, laughter, chores...check.

After showering and cleaning up, it was off to our friend's Ryan and Erin's. By the time I arrived, they had already plugged the kitchen sink with too many potato peels.


Here's a shot of Ryan (minus plumber's crack) trying to rig a solution. Although duck tape was considered (along with removing and "borrowing" the same pipe from my sink), they were finally able to fix it. Unplanned disaster...check.

The rest of the afternoon was spent chatting, watching football, listening to our Indian friend recite Taj's monologue from the movie Van Wilder, and playing Rock Band. I was never all that interested in Guitar Hero so I've never tried the guitar and I was way too chicken to sing, but the drums were a blast.

Don't ask me why Jerry is trying to get a cleavage shot when I'm wearing a shirt that is buttoned up to my chin. For that matter, I'm not sure why he would bother anyway considering I have no cleavage period. Below is a pic of Jess rocking out on the vocals. She did a great job. Although in her blog she states we were laughing at her, you can clearly see it was with her.

Here's the "real" band embarking on their first tour. Silliness, friendship...check.

One dining room table, two card tables and chairs, two turkeys (1 smoked and 1 fried), 20 lbs of potatoes, 1 green bean bake, 1 corn bake, 2 salads, a gallon of stuffing and 7 pies later, we had eaten enough to tranquilize a rhino and still had plenty of leftovers in case we wanted round two later.

Exhaustion befell us, plus Jon and I needed to head out to destination number two: a stop at Venessa's for more pie and plum wine sangria.

It was a glorious Thanksgiving filled with everything I had hoped for and more. I love my family, I miss my family, but my friends are the best family I ever chose. I love you guys.

Love...check.