thanksgiving # 2 - mama's.

#2. 

 Before.

 Thanksgiving at my mama's. My mom can't cook, and I love her for it because otherwise, I don't think I would have found the joy in creating delicious food - (see my earlier blog about this). She's also not the most organized woman in the world, having invited her "whole family" over to her place on the same day my brothers, husband & I were supposed to be with my dad... the week before thanksgiving. Luck came in her favour, though, and around 10 of us will be trucking it up to Middle of Nowhere to enjoy some time with the mama. We're bringing our cat. I'm really excited :)


Here's what's John & I will be cooking up, thanks to Martha Stewart (who's recipes are usually really reliable)...and my Mum (who will be footing the bill in exchange for our cooking!):

• spinach dip
• curried cauliflower
• green bean casserole
• roast potatoes
• homemade stuffing
• apple pie
• chocolate meringue pie

Holidays with my Mom's side of the family usually have some things we can expect. Let's see how my predictions pan out in a few days:

1. Grandpa will tote his own wine, and end up dancing to jazz, and we'll join him
2. Emmy will spend the whole time hugging us, telling us about how absolutely lovely we are, and will want to play a game (I get my game-loving from her). She'll bring her famous refried bean dip!
3. Mum will run around the house pretending to be sorting things together but really she'll just want to look busy because she's a little nervous about people coming over 
4. John will repeatedly tell me to "calm down" because I'll be worried that the house isn't clean enough, food won't come out just right, the boys are just "so loud and it's rude!" - really none of those things are a problem, but I'm nervous like my mum
5. I guess we covered what I'll be doing
6. Patrick will be conquering the x-box, Halo style. He won't understand why we want his help, and so will be reluctant to give it - but nobody minds because he's really funny
7. Andrew will also be playing video games, but will feel a little bit guilty doing so, and will want to come upstairs and pretend he's helping. He'll probably grate a little bit of cheese, give hugs & then go back downstairs or outside with his friends.
8. Uncle Richard will entertain us with some good converstion
9. Aunt Deb (if she comes, we're not sure yet!) will do a healthy combination of Uncle Richard / Emmy, toting fake beer 
10. Gary - if you know me, you know what Gary will be doing. ...Quoting Discovery Channel factoids & telling stories about his life that nobody is quite ready to believe

After.

Thanksgiving at my mom's was fun.  Tiring & a lot of work, but fun! I cooked my first full Thanksgiving meal for 10 and I think it went pretty successfully. A few hiccups, but those are to be expected. 

I ended up making spinach dip, green bean casserole, roast carrots, roast & mashed potatoes, apple cranberry stuffing, apple pie & pumpkin pie - all from scratch!  For the recipes & my suggestions / alterations for them, see "recipes that worked".

The family time was lovely - made me definitely review my 'predictions'... in a big way.

1. OK, I was right about Grandpa - minus the jazz this time. He told my brother not to (or to?) "wiggle and diggle" through the world, and to "use your noogin". He also let us know the value of vitamin D, and if you're able to, the importance of taking your shirt off outside for at least 20 minutes a day. 
2. I was perfectly right about Emmy.
3. My mum actually brought up her tendency to run around the house busily - turns out, she really is nervous when people come over. 10 is a lot! My Aunt Deb sympathized entirely. In reality, my mum did all of the cleaning up - and that's a huge job. 
4. John didn't need to tell me to calm down, thank goodness. He did however make an excellent Tofurkey!
5. I wasn't nearly as nervous as I thought I would be. I had a fantastic little schedule which my whole family laughed at, but helped me keep all of the food in check & my anxiety.. gone! Go schedules.
6. I was totally wrong about Patrick: Patrick cut every dino for our dino pie, peeled apples, cut the pumpkin.. he did a lot
7. Same with Andrew - Andrew worked his butt off, guilt free, and we all had  alot of fun!
8. Correct about Uncle Richard
9. Correct about Aunt Deb
10. Correct about Gary

All in all this Thanksgiving was amazing, because I learned how awesome my brothers truly are - they were so helpful, so supportive, and so much fun. We all had a great time!