I know, I know. Christmas was sooo last year but I need to post this because this past Christmas was…well, special. Don’t get me wrong, every Christmas is special but this past one was extra special. It was the first year that my little family and I celebrated at ‘home’, by ourselves.
In the past we would go home-home; to my hometown to spend it with my parents and brothers. But this year was different.
The mister’s brother and SIL and their kiddos were supposed to come but things happened and they didn’t come. Although I was kind of sad, I told myself all would be okay because even though we’re not going home-home, this would be our first Christmas with just ‘us’. Cheers to new memories and traditions!
It was so peaceful and awesome to not have to load up all our crap and make the 3 hour drive. It was awesome to wake up in my own bed. It was so awesome to have the radicals open up their presents in our own living room. So awesome to be ‘home’ and not have to stress about anything.
Besides that, it was the first year making Christmas dinner by myself. The first year making my own turkey. I was so overwhelmed with paranoia it took me forever to get started. I was mostly overwhelmed with the thought of giving everyone food poisoning. When I first started my dad was all “don’t forget to take the bag and neck bone (I’m not sure if that’s what he called it…) out and boil all the contents in the bag and the neck (?) for a few hours in a separate pot.”
Okay, sounds easy enough. I go to reach in the turkey and no bag. I tell the mister about the supposed bag and he’s all “well maybe his turkey is different and ours doesn’t have a bag?” Fine. Enough with searching for the bag. I proceed to make the stuffing and start to stuff the turkey. I’m thinking to myself how much of a good job I’m doing as I’m still stuffing away. I’m almost done stuffing when I remembered that dad said I could stuff the front of the bird.
Low and behold, what do I find? The darn bag! I took a big sigh of relief and thanked God that I found it because the turkey would have been totally ruined!
So, that was my first turkey making experience and it was quite fun despite my paranoia. Now I can see why my dad is so over making holiday dinners; I was in the kitchen all.day.long! But, the turkey was delish and no one got food poisoning! I was so excited that I called my dad and told him I was the best turkey maker ever. His response: “GREAT! Now it’s all you for Thanksgiving next year!”
I would like to show a picture of my beloved turkey but I totally forgot to take some. I have a before it went in the oven shot but I don’t want to gross you out with a picture of a raw turkey. But here are some pictures of the radicals’ present they got from their Ama and Papa.
Happy Friday!
jenn
