First Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has recovered from Thanksgiving! We are done with leftovers here! This Thanksgiving was a few "firsts" for me. It was our first Thanksgiving together and my first Thanksgiving away from home and family. It was hard being away from loved ones but I was able to see and talk to almost all of them, so that helped so much.

Ben is starting a new work cycle and because it was in the middle of starting and stopping one he got 4 1/2 days off! It was so wonderful!!! We had thought he'd be working Thanksgiving at initially but thank God he got a bunch of days off. It's really a blessing getting that much time with him. I start work on Tuesday so I was thrilled to get so much time together.

I had made somethings the night before so I wouldn't have as much to do on Thanksgiving. I had forgotten about thawing the turkey haha so I had to put it in a water bath all night. It worked and the bird was all ready to go when we got up! Ben was the best helper. He went to the store the night before to get me some last minute things, chopped all the ingredients for the stuffing, made my grandma's punch, and did the turkey.

I have never baked a turkey and really wanted to see how I would do. I honestly called my Grandma about 6 times that morning to make sure I was doing things right haha! I can't handle whole, dead, birds. I don't know why but thinking about them and then pulling the necks and bag of guts out makes me gag. So, Ben took care of all things dealing with the turkey. He cleaned it an everything. I said there were parts in the cavity or bum of the bird. He pulled the neck out and said there was nothing else. I said they usually put the other guts in there. He said nope, none in here. I looked really quick and didn't see any! So, we seasoned him up, rubbed him down with olive oil and attempted to put him in the oven.

Let me paint a picture for you. Our oven is half the size as the ones back in the states. You can only fit a 9x13 pan in at a time and nothing else with it. It's itty bitty and I miss big ovens oh so bad. Now, when I got my Pampered Chef roasting pan I made sure it would fit in the oven. It fit just BARELY. I was like whew!, thank goodness because I really really wanted to use my new pan. Well when Ben went to put the bird in the oven, it would not fit. hahah I was like you got to be kidding me. Then Ben looks up from floor where he is on his knees holding a roasting pan with a 9lbs turkey in it, with the a look on his face that read " I thought you made sure the pan fit Jaimie Kay?" haha I swear I did! So we did a little pushing and shoving and we made sure that pan was in the oven! haha

Next on the list was the stuffing. Because the oven is so small I wasn't sure about how well the stuffing would cook inside the turkey and how long it would be. I just wanted the turkey to be cook the whole way. I put the stuffing in the crock pot instead of in the bird. Ben chopped and diced everything! I was mixing it all together and realized I didn't have half the spices the recipe called for. I did have poultry seasoning and when I read the back of it, it had all the spices I needed. SO... being the genius I am, I just figured I'd triple the amount of poultry seasoning to equal the rest of the needed spices! hahahahahahaha Well everyone- my stuffing was green. No really, it was very green! haha Very yummy, but very green! hahaa wow.

When the turkey was done and finished with it's rest time Ben started the task of craving it! He did an awesome job! Never seen it done better in fact!! :) It wasn't too long after he started that I noticed the juices were a reddish brown color when he was craving up towards the neck. It was a little odd, so I called gram again and told her. haha I knew the turkey was done with the temps and all that jazz so I really didn't know what to think. Gram asked if we took out all the guts and I said yup! Well not 2 minutes after I hung up we found the cause. haha We found the bag of guts we left in the turkey. It was tucked under the skin up by the neck! haha We laughed and laughed! I had to call my Gram back and tell her! It was extremely funny! Why can't they put all the spare parts in one spot, instead of hiding them all through the dumb bird?

After all the excitement, we sat down to have our first Thanksgiving together. We had the best dinner. What made it even better was throughout dinner we talked about everything we were thankful for and all God has provided. It was wonderful. We cleaned up and both decided to take a nap. After we woke up from our turkey induced comas, we laid around, talked, watched some movies, talked to our family and friends, and ate again. It was marvoulous!

Next year, Ben's going to smoke the turkey in his smoker! I pretty excited about it. I'm really okay with never baking a turkey in a german oven ever again!! Ben will be off for Christmas Eve but will be working into the evening on Christmas day. The nice thing about that it he'll have 5 days off in a row after. I'm just so happy he's home this Christmas and we can spend it together.

Tomorrow is my first day at work! I'm excited and a little apprehensive at the same time! I'm so excited to have my own office! haha Also the WIC is very close to the kennels so Ben and I will be able to have lunch together! I can't help it and I know it's so silly but I'm worried about leaving Beretta! haha She's been with me all day everyday. I know she'll be fine but I just I'm thinking she's going to have such a hard time with me gone, she'll be beside herself. haha Wow. It's probably a good thing I'm gong back to work! haha I'd appreciate your prays as I start this big adventure! I don't know where I'd be with out prayer.

We miss you all very much! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!