Happy Thanksgiving!

We had much to be thankful for on Thursday. Grandma, Jeanne, Doug, Charlie, Bob, Patty, Tommy, and Dana were all here with us to help celebrate. Isn't it wonderful to have a house full of people you love? We also had a lot of delicious food to be thankful for. Eight pies (that's close enough to the five pie limit, give me a break) and a huge pan full of stuffing.
Oh man, though. Thursday morning gave us a real test of gratitude. We got up early (not exactly as early as we meant to, but hey, it's a holiday) to prep the bird. My biggest worry was that Tom would still be frozen on the inside. HA! We got the bird out and unwrapped him and put him in the sink to wash. But the water wasn't draining. No big deal, I thought, we sometimes have a hard time with our stone age plumbing. However, a half hour of plunging did no good at all. Precious turkey time was ticking by. Poor Rob was up to his elbows in yucky sink water when all of a sudden dirt and gravel comes shooting out of the drain. Holy shit! Turns out our minor plumbing problem is much bigger than we thought. Then, "ding dong!" the family arrives from the hotel hungry for breakfast. I could've cried, but wonderful Rob just laughed and went to run interference. We ended up washing the bird in the bathtub like a big, cold, slimy baby. We even stuffed it while it was in the bathtub. Then, all the uncles went out back to sort out the sink issue. I think they were kind of having fun doing it, at one point they had out wrenches and hoses and beer. At least two of them were on the roof. They eventually rigged some sort of system where the water drained elsewhere and the sink was usable. Phew.
So, the turkey went in at least two hours late, but the rest of the preparations were mostly drama-free. Here's a little video of grandma making the lattice on the cherry pies. Nice work, Grandma!

Here's the whole gang beginning to enjoy dinner. It's funny how it takes all week to get ready for this dinner and it only takes just a short time to eat it. We ate lots of helpings and really made it last. Then, we ate at least three slices of pie each and passed out. Ahhh. This is the best holiday ever.