Xiaoniu 小妞

Days of preparation for a few hours of visit and 45 minutes of eating. It’s almost like a wedding. Lots of preparation for an event that is over in the blink of an eye. Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a pretty good Thanksgiving this year. It was the first big holiday in our house and everything went well. We planned ahead of time for this one. With Sue getting bigger and me being only one person planning ahead and cooking some things beforehand was essential. Overall everything went well and everybody had a good time.

For guests we had my parents and Sue’s parents, her sister’s family, and Jason and Lily. We probably would have had more family there, but we waited to late to invite them. With Sue’s belly getting bigger we weren’t sure until very close to the day whether we wanted a full house or a small party. I think everything worked out well for everybody though. Sarah had the family at her place for Thanksgiving this year. Perhaps next year we’ll have the whole crowd over.

The food was excellent! We started off with olives; cheese, goat cheese and crackers; shrimp cocktail; and something else I’m sure that I’m forgetting. Oh, spinach dip with tortilla chips.

By 4pm we were all sat down at the table to eat the big meal. Turkey stuffed with a sticky rice mixture, mashed potatoes, turnip, cranberry sauce, and homemade apple sauce. Even though the bird was stuffed with rice Sue made a bread stuffing with apples, cranberries and walnuts. Yummy! We will make that one again just for a side dish. Roasted veggies; potatoes, parsnips, carrots, yams, butternut squash and onions. Stir fried green beans with red peppers. Glazed carrots.

Sue and I make up two pumpkin pies and two apple pies on Wednesday night. Amy picked up three more pies from a local farm stand/bakery. One Dutch apple pie and two Fruits of the Forest pies. As always the FoF pies were great! They are made up of a variety of fruits that go well together. I think there are apples, raspberries, blueberries and some other fruits in it.

The morning of Thanksgiving Sue and I whipped up some homemade truffles. For other snacks and desserts mom made chocolate chip cookies with lots of nuts. All yummy!

Overall we had far too much food. You had to make up two plates to get a taste for everything that was out. I got a bite of most dishes, but not all. Everybody went home with food though. I’m completely out of plastic containers now. We do have some leftovers for ourselves though. Some nice cold turkey to make a sandwich. The carcass to make a turkey soup. Turkey all next week. Yum! I’m sure in a few days I’ll be sick of it all, but for now it’s good.

Throughout the day we had the tree lit up and a small fire going. Dad helped around the house by putting the finishing touches on the wall in the basement. Sue’s dad ran around doing work at Amy’s house. He was planning to replace a toilet, but it didn’t work out. With it being Thanksgiving day parts were hard to come by, so they called it quits.

The real downside to the whole day was that most of the family was sick or just not feeling well. James was still working off his pneumonia, Jason was not feeling well, Sue’s mom was sick and had laryngitis. Amy was okay, but Mike was completely shot. Even Sue had her lingering cough. The only ones not sick were me, my parents and Sue’s dad. Oh well. Something always has to happen each holiday. Last year it was snow. Who knows what next year will bring.

I will have pictures posted up soon. I spent most of my time working and cooking so the pics I have were all taken by others. I’ll just post them all in in one album.

PS: One thing I thought was cool was that everybody fit at the table. We were two people short at 4pm, but we had enough room for all 10 plus James. No card table required. Next year things will be different. I just thought it was cool to have everybody at the same table.