One down...

Thanksgiving is over. It's the only holiday that I host regularly. We don't have a large family but had 12 for dinner. It was a lot of prep for a meal that lasted all but 20 mins. The meal itself was traditional Thanksgiving faire, complete with a turkey that I roasted myself, homemade cranberry sauce (canned just days before), homebaked pies and cookies, real garlic mashed potatoes, gravy made from reduced stock and pan drippings, fresh steamed vegetables and a HoneyBaked ham. We baked Wednesday and I woke up Thursday morning thinking we didn't put enough eggs in the pumpkin pie -- checked with daughter Kelsey, yep only one egg. With the stores still open I had enough time to bake another pie before getting started on the turkey. But then I thought *something* is bound to go wrong so I offered up the pie as sacrifice. It worked. The turkey which was overdone the first year (I got the temperatures crossed -- it's 180 in the thigh and 160 in the breast and not the other way around), and underdone the second year because my oven is hotter towards the back and I didn't turn the bird, came out perfect this year. Not only did I remember to turn it, I basted it every half hour and I started probing after 2 1/2 hours this time with the right temperatures in the right places. And the gravy, did I mention the gravy? Too bad nobody noticed it in the blue gravy boat on the buffet -- but it was heavenly the next day with leftover turkey. I think it isn't until the day after that I actually get to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

I finally started on one of the Xmas scarves. I'm down to 2. Not that I finished everything else, there's just the 2. All other gifts I've decided either will not be knit or if knitted, not for Xmas. Fixes that.