Phew

What a day! As soon as I woke up and brushed my teeth, I started preparing the turkey. It was about 8am and I had a 22 lb turkey to cook, and I knew that would take about 5-6 hours. I got the turkey prepped and stuffed and in the oven before everyone started waking and coming downstairs.

The best part was that it wasn't too difficult to figure out the new stove. That might sound stupid to some, but we have a double wall oven in this house and both are conventional ovens. I had to look over the instruction manual in order to learn how to control the ovens, including using both at the same time.

The best news of the day came when DH's sister told us that she needed maternity clothes for Christmas. She was pg last Thanksgiving, and I had gotten that info out of her two days before then. She lost that baby about 2 weeks later, and I resolved not to ask her again (my own superstition). She got pg again a short while later but again miscarried. I had hoped that when we finally finished discussing gifts for our kids and DHs, and I finally got around to asking her what she needed, that this would be her answer. When she told me to get DH on the phone I knew. We stood with the phone between our ears as she said it and we were both ecstatic. That'll certainly make my shopping easier and I can return the outfit I had gotten her.

My aunt, uncle and cousin said they'd be over around 2. Just before then I decided that I didn't have enough shrimp and ran out to the store. As I was leaving the development, I passed my uncle, so I flagged him down and led my family to the house. My aunt and I ran back to the store, but it had just closed. No biggie. As it turned out, we didn't finish the shrimp I had, so I definitely didn't need more.

My aunt is into machine quilting and made us a housewarming gift. It is a gorgeous Santa and reindeer in the sky, oblong in shape, and should fit beautifully above our fireplace mantel.

We had a lovely dinner in our dining room, all ten of us. There was an overabundance of food, and it appeared that no one made a dent in anything. I had made 3 lbs of corn, 2 lbs of baby carrots and about 2 lbs of green beans. Nevermind the 9 lbs of mashed potatoes, 3 boxes of Stove Top turkey stuffing, the 22 lb turkey, and 2 dozen rolls, not to mention the 4 bricks of cheese and 2 lbs of shrimp we munched on before dinner.

My aunt also made two pumpkin pies, one plain and one with a pecan/brown sugar/butter topping, and also brought a pecan pie and homemade pumpkin bread. Yum. MIL had gotten a strawberry cheesecake that morning and I had completely forgotten about it. We were all stuffed silly.

We finished off the night with a dip in the hot tub. Aaaah; this is the life. We'll leave the pool heater on all night so we can hopefully swim tomorrow.