Absent (is your heart fonder?)

Things have been pretty quiet over here at SayreSmiles. There are many and varied reasons for that - preparing for, then having the holiday. Work craziness and pledge, plus holiday luncheons. Cub scout meetings. Babysitting. School field trips. And finally, my just reward - illness.

In order:
Getting ready for Thanksgiving!

I was a slipcovering fool. I started by helping my friend with two chairs, then came home and noticed how ratty my own furniture looked. I recovered my couch and my FILs old chair.

And when I was done with that, I was a cleaning fool.

The house was in order, my 22-pound turkey was in the oven (baked with just two apples cut up and stuffed inside - this makes the turkey very moist and slightly sweet), and people started showing up! The potatoes weren't peeled yet, so I set my MIL and niece to work. Hilly had never peeled a potato before! So I got her to do the whole process - peeling to mashing. Real mashed potatoes is apparently in danger of becoming a lost art!

With a total of 12 people to feed, we put all the food in the kitchen and served buffet-style. We also had to set up a couple of card tables, so we had six at the diningroom table and six at the two card tables (put together to make a big table).

And then... there was pie (and cake).

And what would Thanksgiving be with out clone troopers?

Or a rousing board game (Risk, in this case)?

My kibitzing sister-in-law does a mean Sarah Palin impersonation, by the way!

Exhaustion hit hard around 7:30 - which felt like the middle of the night. We cleaned up and people went home and the house was silent by 8:30.

I will have to do Thanksgiving, Part 2 in another post. And the rest of this past week. Because I'm still busy and still have other things to do besides blog right this minute!