Thanksgiving Plans

My husband works every Thanksgiving. He works M-Th, every week, whether there are holidays in there or not. Granted, he gets paid extra if there are holidays in there. But it means our Thanksgivings are usually intimate little affairs. Two years ago, while 3 months pregnant with Baby E, I made Thanksgiving by myself! I spent all day cooking. It all turned out deliciously (though the turkey was kind of dry), and I was exhausted. Welcome to pregnancy, silly girl. Last year our friends the Bs had just had a baby two weeks before, so her mom was staying with them and they had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner and invited Dh and me to join them. Mmm, can Mrs. B's mom cook. (Of course, it helps when you get the meat already cooked from Honeybaked Ham ha ha) Dh gets a lunch break, and his employer understands it is Thanksgiving so he can take that lunch break whenever he wants on Thursday. Then he has to go back to the grind.

K and I were discussing Thanksgiving last week. She admitted she didn't really want to go to her family's dinner, nor her husband's family's dinner. She said with the oodles of family they have around, they seem to end up eating three different Thanksgiving dinners. By the end of the day, turkey and the trimmings are gross. (I find it hard to believe, but she would know better than I.) I didn't think too much about it, I was planning on making our little Thanksgiving meal myself (and again while in a pregnant state). But K emailed her husband, asking if it was alright with him if they skipped their family meals and instead had Thanksgiving at their own house and invited us. Her husband was thrilled, not being too chummy with any of his brothers-in-law, so the plan was set in motion. Thanksgiving is going to be at K's house. Her husband suggested inviting a new family from our church, so I think it's going to be K, her husband (I need a nickname for him...), their 4 kids, the three of us, and the new family of four.

Yesterday we hammered out our plans. We are going to have a delicious spread. With no yams because none of us like them. We are even going to brine the turkey the night before. Today I made the cranberry-apricot sauce* (it smelled sooo good), tomorrow I am making some pumpkin pie, and K and I will spend Thanksgiving morning at her house making rolls and whatnot. I'll bring Baby E home for her nap, make the mashed potatoes here, and then back to K's house for final preparations and dinner at 4. I think it's going to be great, and certainly more fun for me than making it all by myself while Baby E gets into my kitchen cupboards.


*The cranberry-apricot sauce is from Real Simple and is ridiculously easy. I tried to link the page, but Real Simple's site is freaking out.