From an old fashioned gal :)

Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2000

Answers

Peg: Back atcha baby....

Who knows? One day 'maybe' we'll get to meet?

I love your humor and style.

happy happy turkey day.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2000

And an early Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

I'm going out to smoke a ham in a couple hours.

They draw pretty well, but are so damned hard to light.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2000

Gobble, gobble.

From our home to yours :-)

Happy Thanksgiving All!!

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2000

"and to all a good night."

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2000

Best said Peg.

Again.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2000

Happy Thanksgiving to all from Birmingham, Alabama .... :)

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2000

As some of you know, Lucky and I were invited to Thanksgiving dinner at SO's daughter's house, which was SO's dad's house before he moved to the nursing home.

I decided I'd bring Peg's magnificent shrimp dip, ruffly chips, a pumpkin pie, a Dutch Apple pie, and whipped cream and ice cream to put on those pies, as well as a green-bean casserole. I also brought a carton of pop and some beer.

SO's brother picked him up from the airport and drove him straight to Steph's house. I finally found the creamed shrimp soup Thanksgiving morning [after deciding to substitute creamed onion soup.] I put the creamed cheese into a bowl and opened the soup and put it in when I had to go to the bathroom. On return from the bathroom, I noticed a can of soup on the counter. DOH! THERE was the creamed shrimp soup. I'd put in the onion soup by mistake. No problem...I scooped out the onion soup as best I could, and replaced it with the shrimp soup, mixed it up, folded in the shrimp, and put it in the frig for the alloted time.

It was already about 2pm and dinner was scheduled for 5pm. It turned out that the pies took 65 to 75 minutes to bake, so I put them in the oven together. They needed to be placed on a flat pan, and I only had one flat pan, so the pumpkin pie needed to tilt slightly. By 4:15 or so, the pies were cool enough to touch to pack, and I loaded up the car and went to pick up Lucky. She was waiting outside, even though it was dark and raining when I got there. She has a nice porch to keep dry in the rain.

We followed the instructions, but missed the intersection in the dark rainy night. I pulled into several gas stations for directions, but they were all closed. I finally found one that was open, and they told me how far back to go, where to turn, etc. They were WRONG, and we found ourselves on one of those roads that wind and wind until we didn't know whether we were going north, south, east, or west. There were no lights and no intersections for MILES. To make a long story short, we didn't arrive at our destination until 6:30.

Everyone had already eaten, and SO's dad [the one I wanted to see] had asked to be taken back to the home by 4pm. Lucky had to pee really bad by this time, so the first thing I did was maneuver her in to use the bathroom. The food was still on the table, and the folks sitting at the table got up so Lucky and I could have seats. It was a table that sat only four, and the chairs were large and rolling. Lucky plunked her tired butt down into the nearest chair, which rolled backwards, hitting a wall-shelf behind her so hard that half the contents flew onto the floor on the opposite side. She sat there stunned, wondering what had happened.

There was both ham and turkey. Lucky said she wanted turkey. She didn't want green bean casserole, didn't want greens or cornbread, nor did she want stuffing, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, or any of the other foods available that she didn't recognize. She was a Northern woman at a Southern table. She had turkey and yams.

Fortunately, someone had taken the ice-cream out of the car and put it in the freezer, but it was very sloppy after two hours on the road. Steph had three friends over and decided to catch a cinema while her cousin stayed to watch her young son, who popped that bag of chips open all over the frontroom floor.

After Lucky finished her meal, she asked for something to drink. I hadn't thought to bring coffee for her. Steph had none in the house. I gave her a glass of water. Lucky sat in the frontroom with SO and his brother for a while and I watched Steph's son slap CD's in and out of the CD player, pushing all the buttons, throwing the CD's on the floor, etc. while Steph's cousin "supervised" him. I said, "Are you sure he's allowed to "play" with the CD player?" She said, "Apparently so." SO's sister-in-law was packing up food to take home in the kitchen, as she wanted to get home to hear a Spanish soap opera. I decided to do the same, packed my uneaten pies, my uneaten shrimp dip, what little remained of the bag of chips, my green bean casserole, the untouched pop and beer, and got Lucky out to the car. SO drove home, and Lucky was surprised when we reached her place so quickly.

If I'm lucky enough to still have Lucky next Thanksgiving, I think we'll stay home and share cornish hens again.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2000

Geez 'Nita,

Sounds like the Thanksgiving from Hell :(

We went to my brother's house as we do every year... And every year I cook a turkey the day after so we can have our own private little dinner.

There's still time to go get a couple of cornish hens and cook 'em up for Lucky ;)

ps...get more chips too!!..lol

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2000

Peg:

MY day was nothing next to that of my daughter's Thanksgiving hostess. My daughter shares Thanksgiving dinner at her boyfriend's aunt's house every year. It's a long story, but Andy's aunt is more like his mom than his mom. I've met her on several occasions, and she's REALLY nice. She has no children, and her sister had Andy when she was 14, so she revels in having kids around [even though none of them are kids anymore.]

Sharon [Andy's aunt] started cooking at 3am yesterday. They finally sat down to eat at 8:30pm. Sharon had decided to make pumpkin pies from scratch because her husband loves them. After making them, she put them in the oven with the turkey. The thermostat broke on her oven, and she had to go out and buy a new one. It turns out that she had to keep turning the oven on and off as the heat STILL wouldn't regulate, but the pies turned out fine and she put them atop the washer and dryer to cool. The cat at some point jumped atop the washer and dryer, plunking one paw into each pie.

Since the pies were in the oven with the turkey, there was no room for the stuffing, so they put the stuffing outside on the gas grill. Unfortunately, the gas grill ran out of gas, and the stuffing didn't fully cook.

An exhausted Sharon sat down to dinner at 8:30pm and said, "Why do I even bother?"

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2000

My oldest dropped her sister off at their Aunties with all their cousens and Aunties and Uncles, then she went to her boyfriends parents house. I ate a salsbury steak and spinach, and watched the X-Files marathon. I'm no company for anyone these days.

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2000