yes, there was turkey

Thanksgiving is sort of funny at our house. You’d think there’d be the traditional Thanksgiving spread in all its American glory, but turkey is usually just an afterthought. Yes, we did have turkey, but it never made it to the table, hence the missing bird in the photos. It usually goes straight from the oven to the kitchen counter where it gets shredded and put on a platter – there is no formal carving of the bird in a sit-down ceremony (and crap, I now realize we forgot the canned cranberry sauce. We never forget the can!). And if you must know the truth, in the last couple of years, the turkey plus trimmings has been catered in from restaurants. Shocking, huh?

I’m sure now that Mark doesn’t have to work holidays anymore he’d love to cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal one year. This is only the 2nd Thanksgiving he’s had off as he’s worked ever major holiday, including Christmas, at his old restaurant job for 5 years (yeah, if you’ve been reading this blog long enough you’ve heard me complain about how much holidays majorly sucked for that reason). But still, there was plenty of other cooking to be had in the kitchen today including 2 desserts, a sort of novelty these days since Mark has had no time for “recreational” baking.

All in all, it was a relaxing day. I got in a full day’s of work, but it was not stressful since much of it was done on the couch with the kids watching the Macys Thanksgiving parade and during the time my dad took the girls to the playground. We took an afternoon family walk and then ate ourselves silly.

And what does a ridiculously picky kid like Claudine eat on Thanksgiving? She had 3 giant slices of Asian pear, an orange juice and a donut. It was similar to her Thanksgiving meal last year. What can you do? At least she miraculously ate some swiss chard this week which was probably the first vegetable her stomach has seen in weeks, maybe even months. Sad, but for that…I am thankful.