Thanksgiving 2024 is a wrap. There were 18 of us for dinner. I had expected 24 but several got sice and couldn’t come.
I slept last night between 6:30 and 11:00 and then never did go back to sleep. I am one tired puppy today.
This small kitchen made it happen today. I got frustrated a couple of times with little space. I would pick up a pan without planning where it was going and there was no place to set it down.
The mashed potatoes didm’t turn out very good today. I had too many potatoes for the pan and the top layer got tough and wouldn’t mash. I fished out as many lumps as I could find but several eaters found lumps. They were sticky for some reason today too. The turkey in the roaster worked well but the ham didn’t do as well. It was edible, just not as tender as I like. Other than that everything turned out great.
Kathy helped me get things pulled together today and helped me clean up afterwards. She carried all the tables and chairs back out to the shed while I did dishes. I still have to put the dishes away and clean off the table and then we will be done.
It is good to know I can seat 18 people for a sit down dinner and make it work. I easily could have had at least 2 more and probably 6 more like I had planned. I had pushed the riding bike into my bedroom. If I had been thinking, I would have put it in a different spot so people could have exited the kitchen with their full plate through the laundry room and out my bedroom. That would have made a smoother traffic flow. We made it work so all was good.
Today was the first time I missed my big house. Cooking and serving a crowd in that house was easy. Good to know this house works if I do some advanced planning and think out my moves.
Kathy and I were trying to remember how many times we washed dishes today. I’m guessing at least ten times between yesterday and today and it could easily have been more. This house doesn’t have a dishwasher and with the small space I would fix a dish and then have to stop and do dishes, put everything away and then could start the next dish.
It takes longer that way but I never felt rushed today and could have been ready to serve at noon instead of 1:00.
I am gifting myself tomorrow as a do nothing day. I am hoping to sleep around the clock tonight and take a long nap tomorrow. I may get to stay home the rest of the weekend. I need to do something with Tagen in town but he is going out of town and isn’t available so it will have to wait till next week. What a treat it will be for me to have several stay at home days. I might get some things crossed off my long to-do list.
Next week looks fairly quiet at this point. I have to go to Emporia on Monday for exercise and will go in later in the week to take care of a banking thing with Tagen. Now that the rental house is all but done my life can go back to lots of stay at home days and regular activities.
Debating on putting up a Christmas tree. I never did put one up last year. We had our family Christmas early and I didn’t host it so didn’t see the point. This year we are having it on the 21st at my house. That may motivate me to put it up but man I hate that job. We shall see what I decide to do.
I so enjoyed having a house full today. Good friends, family, lots of food and lots of love in the air today. Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year and this year was perfect.
Now I get to turn my attention to getting Christmas ready. I will get some things ordered for the grandkids soon and start looking for game ideas. We decided on the menu for our gathering today so fixing it will be easy. I don’t do much shopping for Christmas and the grandkids are old enough to give me their lists. I do enjoy making Christmas treats so will make a list of stuff I need to do that and pick that up next week when I am in town. Then as the mood hits I can get started making my family’s favorite treats.
I still send out Christmas cards and write a letter that goes with them. I will get started on writing that this weekend. It sure helps that I blog and record my life. I struggle with the timeline sometimes and can’t remember with much clarity when things happened. I am getting good at letting go of things and not holding on to them but the downside of that is I forget they happened.
Sitting in a wonderful head space tonight. I absolutely love having friends and family over and fixing a big feast. It was so neat to hear the laughter and conversations that were happening in the house today. Everyone seemed to have a good time and everyone left in a good mood.
Grateful for those that came for the feast today, grateful I was able to pull this event off, and grateful it is almost bed time as I am tired to the bone tonight.