Thanksgiving, and Happy Holidays from 2 of the cats!

Thanksgiving was a quiet one. When my mother was still mobile and able to climb stairs, I hosted Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at my house for 15 years.

After my second divorce, when I moved to my condo, which was a second floor townhouse, my mom could no longer do stairs, so my sister took over (woohoo!!) I got away easy since then, and my sister usually did a turkey breast, but the place she's working now gave out full sized turkeys to the employees, and she didn't have a clue what to do with it.

So, the Sunday before, I dropped off my roasting pan & rack, brining mix, and directions on how to brine the turkey and then roast it. She was a little intimidated, as she mostly steams and grills most of their usual meals. HA!!! I put her to the challenge, to which she first balked saying she didn't know if she had the time for all that, but I just left her with the main ingredients to force her to learn how to do a turkey.

She didn't disappoint. While I would have roasted the turkey a little longer at the higher temp without foil to really crisp up the skin, being the health nut she is, the thermometer read 170 degrees and she doesn't do skin anymore (we used to fight over the crispy stuff when we were kids) the turkey came out of the oven to "rest". We feasted on shrimp cocktail and bruschetta before dinner, then the feast began.

Melanie making the Caesar Salad:

Tim, David, My 91 year old mom, and my brother in law Danny, who's been going through chemo for his Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, deep in conversation:

Tim & David....

I made 2 pumpkin pies, 1 for all of us, and 1 for my son to take home - he always said I made the best pumpkin pie in the world. Here's mom enjoying her slice of pumpkin pie...

Tim's Tennessee Titans were playing, and he and Danny kept their eyes glued on the game:

And David, being the electronics geek that he is, couldn't stay away from the computer - he's been wheeling and dealing on ebay, buying and re-selling I Pods and made $1,000 in the last month with his deals.... I have no idea how he does it!!

I helped Melanie clean up, and we were stuffed to the max! In addition to my pumpkin pie, she bought a blueberry pie, a chocolate mousse pie, a coconut creme and pignole cookies!! We had an excellent Pinot Grigio to go with dinner, so clean up was a breeze!

Dutifully stuffed, we made our leftover containers and said our goodbyes, as it was nearing time for Simba's insulin shot.

When I think back on the days that I did the holidays for 15+ people, I didn't really feel too badly leaving my sister with a rinsed-off, 2nd round for the dishwasher.... this would have been cake for me!!

And now, the kitties want to wish you all a happy holiday season... Simba as an elf (he was so humiliated!) and Gumbo, crabby as can be....