and we were thankful

yesterday we hosted our annual "stragglers thanksgiving" dinner. last year it was interrupted (happily) by my family visiting and my having to feed us all. man, that was fun.

this year we had our friend michelle and her 15 year old son, gage, over as well as tami (who i work with) and her beau, keith.

i texted mick a few weeks ago asking her what their plans were. she said there was another offer on the table, but that she would check with the kid. he answered with a resounding, "kev and shan's!" i kind of figured that would happen. :)

earlier this week it dawned on me that one of the girls i work with and her boyfriend might not have plans, but want copious amounts of food. they were on and off the fence not sure what they wanted to do, but at 3:00 sent a text saying they were on their way. i also kind of figured that would happen...what, with the lure of a huge home cooked meal?

it was such a lovely day. no crazy rush to get things cooking, just a glance at my time-line on the fridge and i knew i could have a leisurely day cooking. the turkey was 18 lbs. it was one our neighbors had stored in our freezer last year. they'd gotten it for free, but had no space last year to put it in their tiny freezer. we offered up storage, thinking they'd want it for the holidays. nope.

i told brett that we were cooking it and he was surprised we'd not already. a year is my limit on freezing a turkey for someone before it becomes fair game (no pun intended). we'll have them over for soup.

we played a game for a while, in front of the fire, but we ended early because it was kind of boring...why didn't we play quelf?!?

everyone had a good time anyway. it ended up being an earlier night, but that was okay. we all were full. not only our bellies, but our hearts (well mine was).

this morning i woke at the leisurely hour of almost 9:00. i've got plans to make the turkey stock for soup. i may not get out of my jammies, jury is still out on that call.