Thanksgiving = So much food.

I am so ridiculously full. I’m exhausted, but I can’t go to bed yet because laying down makes me feel like I’m about to throw up. Why do I have to be so skilled at making a delicious feast?

I feel like I sat around a LOT today. I think I was more prepared this year than I have been any other year. Plus, this is our 3rd (I think?) year of doing this all by ourselves so I’m getting a bit used to it.

This morning, Ashley was such a good girl and would play with her Daddy while I rearranged our living room and cleaned up a bit. I made the alphabet mat say "turkeyz" "ash" and "food" (the z in turkeyz was completely accidental and therefore hilarious to me) but it was quickly hidden by toys and books so no one noticed but me.

Jake and I didn’t eat lunch until 2. We had sushi. We had NOTHING in the apartment that we could eat, not even a slice of bread. And seeing as we had wraps for dinner last night and the only other good prepared thing at the store is sushi, sushi made sense. It was the best thing ever, it hit a million spots that I didn’t even know needed to be filled with tasty. It was so the opposite of a thanksgiving feast so it worked out well.

Kristen and Matt showed up at about… 4 maybe? Not long after Ashley had a nap (oh, I must tell you! Jake was AMAZING during all the prep today. Maybe that’s why I feel like I did nothing? During Ash’s morning nap he did all 4 things on the to do list that I thought he might do. During her afternoon nap he got the turkey out of the brine, cleaned, oiled, filled the cavity with aromatics, made a al foil breast plate for the second part of the cooking… in short, he did EVERYTHING from fridge to oven, without needing me to tell him how to do anything. It was so awesome!), which was good timing on their part. Ashley spent her time making a mess with the giant pile of books they brought over for her.

Nick and Stacy showed up next, then Lisa, and finally Matt showed up right before dinner. So…. 9 people in total, but thankfully we only had to serve 8. Ashley ate rice cake smeared with some sweet potato mash at the dinner table though, so she wasn’t left out.

Matt (umm… the non-grandpa one. I’ll refer to the grandparents as such so it doesn;t get confusing) made this AMAZING shredded chicken and cheese dip thing. I sat by that and ate SO MUCH. And even though I knew I shouldn’t be eating, I kept eating! Stupid deliciousness.

The turkey was ready a little earlier than I expected (benefit of brining – the turkey was super moist and delicious even though I overcooked that sucker quite a fair bit!) but somehow dinner was still on time at 6. Not sure how that happened. We had the turkey, stuffing loaf, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, mashed sweet potato (saltless, so not that great), mixed veg (from a freezer bag, mmm) and… gravy? And a salad. Lots of food. I filled my plate and somehow ate almost all of it even though I was full before halfway. OH and Stacy brought these awesome rolls that she always brings that I just love. And cornbread. Is that everything? So much food.

Dessert was sweet potato pie (my best ever, I think!), apple crumble and a citrus slice. I barely ate half a piece of slice, so sad. But we were left with like… 6 or 7 pieces, so that’s pretty great. I think that is actually what we have the most of. We barely have any turkey left. I don’t know if the bird we got was low on meat or if Jake left too much on the carcass or if people ate a LOT or all 3, but there doesn’t seem to be much. We have previously had enough turkey for a weeks worth of meals, and we have not enough for 2 days. HOW?!

Ashley did SO WELL with so many people here. She was up for an hour past bedtime too. She is so awesome. She didn’t care much for her uncles. Every time I tried to give her to Nick, she would CLING to me. She’s an adorable strange one.

I actually ate so much tonight that I had to get Jake to get me a spoon of nutella to act as a queasiness neutraliser. Thankfully it worked, I really didn’t want to throw all that deliciousness up and waste it like that.

Hopefully I’ll be able to lay down soon so I can go to bed. I have a lot of cleaning to do tomorrow. Have to turn the couch the right way and move all the furniture back to the exact spot where it belongs (or I’ll go crazy constantly inching things around until they are in the right place). Have to sweep, so much food on the ground in here. Have to mop the kitchen. Have to put away all the dishes that Lisa washed because she is AWESOME. Have to finish off the few dishes that she didn’t wash, like the turkey pan that always takes 3-4 days of scrubbing to get completely clean.

I really need to gather my recipes, schedule, all my thanksgiving notes, and put them in a folder so they are easily accessible next year. Of course, I say that every year…