The Thornfield Manor: Happy Turkey Day!

For Thanksgiving this year, my parents as well as my grandfather (father's father) came for the weekend. They all seemed to have a lovely time, hanging around with the peanut, who was VERY busy, as well as eating an obscene amount.

The play by play:
Thursday:
The turkey turned out great this year. I have never cooked thanksgiving dinner with just one oven, so I bought a countertop roasting pan for the turkey to make more room for the sides. What a great idea!! It cooked the turkey perfectly, and it was very moist since it almost steams in the pan. Also, I tried a new brineing recipe, which was delicious (Beth & Merideth can expect repeats for Christmas).
Julianna LOVED having everyone there and being the center of attention. She could be seen to run into rooms and yell, "AMA!!! Come!!! Sit!!!" or Gran-pa, or whomever she needed at the time. She loved the marble roller than my family had when we were little, although she wasn't totally sure how it worked and kept trying to push the marbles through. She also really liked turkey soup with dumplings that we had on Sunday.(M- eat your heart out).
The Lion's lost in the grand tradition, but so it goes.
Also, after dinner my friend Kristen came over with the most perfectly made (every pecan in the right place) pecan pie that you have ever seen. We had dessert and unfortunately Kristen was inundated with Dad philosophy of medicine for a while.

Friday:
My aunt Amy came up on Friday for her birthday and she and my uncle Bill trimmed all of our trees, which was great, and now things are looking all cleaned up for the winter.
Also on Friday, Rob and I got up and went to Circuit City at 5 am. Never again. At 5am the line was STILL AROUND THE BUILDING!! And, of course what we wanted, the teaser, there were only 12 of, and they has handed out vouchers at 5 to the beginning of the line and they are were all gone. But we did get a bunch of other stuff at good prices, so we were quite happy about that. Still, it was cold and dark and crazy. After getting into the store I immediately got into line, and then we took turns being in lines while the other went and found stuff, and we still stood in line for a total of 2 hours. Good times. I don't think that we will ever even think about that again.

Saturday:
We had cherry dumplings with runkashi (?sp) for Dedichek. Peanut didn't like any of it, but kept wanting to eat the sauerkraut, thinking it was rice, which she loves.

Basement weekend progress report:
Also, we have the basement bathroom completely usable. The ceiling still needs to go in, but the plumbing all works, and the door is in...so it is at least usable for the holidays. Rob and I are going to try and get the ceiling in and the lights in before everyone gets here for Christmas, and I will have to get a bathmat, etc. for that room, but so far, so good. In the rest of the basement, Dad has the trim almost totally done, and has the stairway door started. And in the main room the laundry room doors as well as the cabinets and closet doors are in, which is huge improvement.
Other home improvement progress reports:
Wood refinishing: Done, but still waiting for key back.
Windows: Not done, no end in sight.
Stained glass: Jeffery came to try to fit the frame today, and....wait for it....the frame manufacturer made it the wrong size!! So, that is on hold for a while. Hopefully still in by Christmas.

I hope you all had an equally good turkey day.

Pictures from the weekend: