That's not a good name for it, since the thanks were genuine and so was the food and fun but that's what I'll call it until we come up with a better title.
The original plan was to have a traditional turkey dinner with all the fixin's because we're Americans and agree that you can't have too many turkey dinners. But then the grocery store up the street brought out their traditional holiday Manhattan roasts and Jay changed the menu. No one argued because those roasts are out of this world and we all know we're going to be eating turkey till it comes out our noses by the end of the week anyway, so; Roasts it was!
Instead of mashed potatoes and green bean casserole, we cooked up a giant bag of tater tots (I won't eat either so did not care how the potatoes were served) and Katie brought a pan of roasted green beans with parmesan cheese. They were fantastic!
Also on the menu, provided by every member of the family, were fresh sweet corn, deviled eggs, jello with orange slices, stuffing, sliced tomatoes, sandwich fixings, Devil cookies, sherbet, donuts and pecan pie. There was also wine, pop, milk, water and scotch. Everyone got enough to eat and drink and there were even enough leftovers for several people to take bags of goodies home.
In short, Fake Thanksgiving was a smashing success!
It's hard to get the whole family together like that, what with jobs, kids and in laws but we need to make a point of it because we have so much fun. While the grownups were watching football, the kids were drawing pictures, playing basketball and having Princess Class.
We scheduled dinner for 3 and we ended up actually eating at about 4, so I think we were pretty good. Katie, Adam and BoopityBoop were the last to arrive. They'd been having a very exciting day, converting the girls' cribs into youth beds. Now that BoopityBoop have discovered they can climb out of the cribs, there's no point in them anymore. It's a sad transition for the parents of toddlers to realize one can no longer just toss the kid into bed and know that's where they'll be stuck until you get them out again.
The Princess game was completely based upon the girl finding the crowns and Princess hat in the toy box. They had a blast.
Meanwhile, most of the adults were in the TV room, watching whatever football game was on. I was busy all day, between playing Mancala with grandkids, eating, prepping or talking.
The sun set shortly after 5. It was gorgeous, the sky over our hill striped with dark blue and vivid orange.
The fun thing about this time of year is that it was full dark by 6, which means it felt like 10:00 by 6:30, everyone had gone home by 7:30 and everyone got a good night sleep before school or work the next day.
A few nights ago, as I sat at my kitchen table, sipping the Manhattan Jay just made me and watching him as he cooked us dinner, it occurred to me that my life is like a day dream that somehow came true. I told Jay that and asked him if he every felt that way.
He didn't even look up from the veggies he was chopping up for our stir fry; he just smiled and said "All the time!"
We should celebrate Thanksgiving every single day.