Thanksgiving Day, November 25, I arose at 7:30 to put the turkeys on. I made them according to my Spanish Turkey recipe. I was just leaving the kitchen when I saw the two turkeys sitting on the counter that I had put there the day before.
I had gone and put two frozen turkeys in the roaster pans. So I took the two frozen turkeys out of the roaster pans, put them in trash bags (the only plastic bags big enough, put them back in the freezer) and then prepared the other turkeys to go in the roaster pans.
Fito was using the boys to put up Christmas lights outside, but I had the three girls to help me. They peeled the potatoes (15 pounds worth) and poor Abby cut all of them. I made a large batch of rice, heated up some corn (I drain the water from the canned vegetable and then add butter salt and pepper...if it's green beans or depends, I add bacon grease for flavor...that is why restaurants veggies are always better...you need a little fat to make something taste better...)
I got the dough out of the fridge and divided it into fourths. I rolled out two batches and made cinnamon rolls and the other two were for homemade dinner rolls. I then took large bowls, filled them with hot water, and set the pans of rolls on top. (The steamy water helps them to rise faster). And then I made gravy.
The girls got the china down and started setting the tables. This is the first year ever, I did not press the table cloths. I simply put them in the dryer with some wet towels and left them to dry. They did not have wrinkles, but weren't perfectly smooth at the edges...but I lived with it...and guess what...it really didn't matter...little by little I am letting go of my perfectionism.
Abby and Rebeca went outside and cut some of the pampa grass and crabapple tree branches. I made an arrangement and it came out really pretty. I also took the two arrangements from the wedding and used what flowers were still pretty to make a small arrangement for the glass table.
In my dining room, I have a large wood table that seats 10 and in another area, I have a small round wood table with a glass tops that seats 4-5 people. We had both with china.
Then in my mom's area, she has a table that seats 6-8, We put chairs there and also brought in a card table and one of the patio tables. We had folding chairs and I had paper plates for their use.
We ended up with about 32 people. Matthew came, and Maria and Travis. None of the other children came. Ben had to work. Douglas and Ary don't have the money and Douglas had to work and Tony will come at Christmas. The others who came were some of our Spanish friends.
We had two fires outside and a fire in the insert going. It was a cold day, but sunny.
The Spanish ladies all pitched in and helped do the dishes and then we sat around, visited, played board games. Some of our friends from Mexico brought their guitars and sang and played for us. It was a great day!
We stayed up until 3 am watching movies. Fito and I have not done that for years. The problem is my mind won't usually let me sleep late.
Friday, the 26th, I awoke about 8 am and went to the living room. I put wood on the fire and sat on the couch in my pajamas intending to spend the whole day that way with my book, Persuasion by Jane Austin.
Around 10 am, others got up. Felipe was already up. He is like me in that he cannot sleep in. Fito, too, rarely ever sleeps in. People ate breakfast, read book and played games. (Fito had hidden the controllers, so they could not play video games).
Fito went to get a load of roof tiles. Our contractor friend is now working on a church and they do not want the tiles. If we go and get some more we will have enough to do the whole house, including my mom's section.
We helped him unload the tiles and then I went with Rebeca. She gave me a ride on the golf cart and showed me how to run it. We had a bunch of geese on the lake. We watched them for awhile. When we came in, Elizabeth begged me to start setting up Christmas decorations. She and Abby helped me to get them all down from the attic.
We got the tree up, the village up, and two nativities done. The tree is missing the top. Somehow when we moved, we lost the top. The past two years, we have set it up without a top. but this year, I took pliers and a hammer and worked one of the lowest branches off.
I then slid it into the pole at the top. I bent some of the top branches up and it worked! We actually have a top for my angel. Yea!
Today, Saturday, the 27th, we are planning on hauling tile all day. A friend of Elizabeth spent the night. She comes from a small family. She kept saying she wished she had a huge family. I told her, I felt the same when I was younger (and I had 5 siblings!) and I told her she has the power to create her own large family some day.
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