Thursday, November 23rd
I bought our turkey from Winco over the weekend because I got a great price on it. I stuck it in the fridge to thaw out for a couple of days. The day before, we put on the counter to finish thawing out. It was so nice to have a four-day weekend from work even though a short week of work always seemed longer than it really was. I spent part of the week putting stuff away, cleaning and making sure we had everything we needed for Thanksgiving.
The night before, Ben helped me make turkey cookies with Nutter Butter cookies. I had found a recipe online and thought it would be fun to make them. They were pretty easy to make as well. I let Ben take the lead on it while I supervised.
We got the onion and celery all cut up and took out everything we'd need and staged it on the table. I baked Trish's round chocolate birthday cake so it could have time to cool. I spent some time getting some of our presents wrapped, the Christmas letter done and did a few cards. I wanted to get a head start before December hit. I still needed to finish them.
We got up around 10, ate a light breakfast and got started putting stuff away, cleaning the house, finished putting up the decorations around the house and Ben and spent some time getting the turkey prepped and ready to go. It needed to cook for about 4.5 to 5 hours with the stuff inside of it. Ben had way too much fun stuffing the turkey this year. He made me take a series of weird pictures for him stuffing the turkey.
We spent the rest of the afternoon vacuuming, doing dishes, getting the tables and chairs out, everyone got in a shower, and I worked on Trish's turkey cake since she asked me to make her one. I found a really cool turkey cake online, but it was made with fondant. I have never used fondant before, so this was going to be an interesting adventure.
I watched a short video on how to do it first and then I tried my hand at it. My large cutting board came in handy. I had white and brown fondant. Rolling it out was probably the hardest part. I got out my gel food coloring because I needed orange and red. I mixed those up, made them super thin with the rolling pin and made two orange feet, an orange beak and a red gobble. I got the brown out, rolled that out thin, got my large round portion for my cake and then I made two brown wings. I made some eyes with some of the white fondant.
I got a cardboard base, put some icing down, the round cake, spread the chocolate icing on the cake and gently laid my large round piece of brown fondant on the cake. It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't perfect. I was able to hide some of my seams away from view. I smoothed it out, added my eyes, beak, gobble, feet and wings. I was going to make the tail feathers, but I just bought some colorful craft feathers from Michaels and stuck them in. I thought the completed cake looked pretty good. I was very proud of it. I showed Ben and he thought it looked awesome.
I got the table decorated. This year I bought turkey name cards and placed them where I thought people should sit. I wasn't sure if people would like them or not. Grammie used to put out name cards when we had holidays at their house.
Trish, Ed and Amy arrived earlier than everyone else did. As it got closer to dinner, Ben worked on the potatoes, I got the stuffing ready, the rolls, Trish helped stir the gravy and we put the final touches on everything as more people arrived. Ben carved the turkey and put it on its serving tray. Mom added her desserts (she gets a free pie from work every year), her charcuterie board, Amy added her pumpkin trifold and Sonya put her charcuterie board on the table and placed her casseroles into the oven to warm up. We had lots of food.
It was finally time for food, and I grabbed a plate and was the first one in line. I was hungry after eating breakfast seven hours ago. We all piled food onto our plates, sat down and ate. We talked about various things from football because the Seahawks were currently playing as dinner was ready (we were playing one of the Thanksgiving games against the 49ers) to Erika's baby and everything else in between.
Grandma and Trish helped clear the dishes from the table and got some of them into the dishwasher. I appreciated it because it saved Ben and I time after everyone leaves. I spent some time hand washing some of the bigger dishes because we don't like putting them in the dishwasher. We cleared off some of the serving bowls and put the leftovers into smaller bowls and to go bowls for people to bring home. We hung out and visited for a little bit. A group of people played a card game while others ate dessert, and some were hit with the famous turkey coma and fell asleep. I sat on the couch for a little bit before I got Trish's turkey cake ready.
The Seahawks lost to the 49ers because they suck at offense.
We had a mini birthday party for Trish since her birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. She as much appreciative that we had some cards, presents and a fun turkey cake to celebrate with.
Everyone gathered up their stuff, thanked us for the food and the fun and headed home. Ben and I cleaned up the rest of the house, finished the dishes and put stuff away. I ran the vacuum over the floor one more time because people are messy. I drove out to Tumwater to let Alicia's dogs out since she was gone for the long weekend visiting family in Yakima.
I packed up stuff for the next day since we were going to spend a night at Trish's house for the second part to her birthday party. She wanted to have a paint night. Earlier that week, Ben and I bought her a starter kit including paints, brushes and a few accessories. It was nice when we finally went to bed. We were tired.
Friday, November 24th
We got up around 10 again. I was still tired from the day before because cooking and cleaning for 12 people is a chore. Plus, we were up way too late the night before. We got ready, grabbed all the bags I had packed the night before (paint night stuff), our overnight bags, threw in a couple games. some snacks, put drinks in the cooler and packed up the recycle since it was getting out of control and needed to be dumped off at the recycle.
It was my turn to drive so everything went into the Escape. Our first stop was in Tumwater to let out Alicia's dogs and to make sure they had food and water. Ben forgot his coffee so we had to drive back home again. Lame. We drove into Hawks Prairie to get rid of the recycle and hopped onto I-5 to start our drive to Bonney Lake. I was so happy to see that there wasn't any traffic the entire way up.
We rolled into Bonney Lake around 2ish and called Trish to see if she needed anything before, we got to the house. She said she could use a few more eggs. We stopped at Fred Meyer for some eggs and more beer. We saw Amy on the way out as she was finishing her shift. Of course she questioned why we were there. We left and went to the house and Ed was already there. We unloaded our stuff, got settled in, Trish made some chicken bits and fries as an afternoon snack.
Amy got home, she ate some of the chicken and fries and then went and took a nap. She's gotta learn how to go to bed at night so she gets decent sleep for work. Sadly, this will be an ongoing process probably for a while. Meanwhile, we played two games of Fire Tower, and I lost both games. I hate losing at games. As it got closer to dinner time, Trish ordered some pizzas from Papa Murphy's and Ben and I went to go pick them up.
We got back, Trish had the oven preheated, stuck in the first one while we hung out and watched the start of the Duck and Beaver Civil War. I had about two pieces of pizza and called it good. I didn't need to stuff myself. We cleaned the table off, we put the other leaf in and then covered it with a sheet.
I gave everyone an apron, a canvas, their paint and paint brushes. I had to borrow some of the paint brushes from Nicole the other day. We got the tutorial all fired up and listened to the instructions while we all followed along. I've done these a few times so I kinda knew the trusting the process mantra. Ed, Ben and Amy had a hard time trusting the process. I had to keep reminding everyone that these paintings are done in layers and everyone's paintings are going to look different depending on the person.
We did this for about 2.5 hours while we watched the Ducks beat the Beavers. I saw it coming but thought the Beavers would be more competitive than they showed. We got in a group picture as well as some individual shots of each one.
We helped Trish clean up, got the paint out of the brushes and the cups rinsed out. Ed went home and we chilled for a little bit. I decided I needed a shower, so I got one in real quick and then went to bed around 12:30.
Saturday, November 25th
I had set my alarm for 9:30 and got up just before it went off because I had to pee really bad. I decided to just get ready for the day, so I washed my face and got dressed. Ben was still asleep in bed. I walked upstairs and Trish was up there getting breakfast ready. I asked if I could help her. I made the scrambled eggs while she took care of the sausage, bacon and the English muffins.
Amy emerged from her room, Ben came up from the basement and we ate breakfast together while we talked about how the day was going to go. After breakfast, everyone finished getting ready, Ben and I took the bed apart and put it back together with fresh sheets and pillowcases, we packed up our stuff and shoved it into the Escape. We saw it was going to be a sunny day.
We took separate cars and followed Trish and Amy to Safeway. They bought three bouquets of roses. We drove to Federal Way first to go visit Trish's Mom and Dad, James and Rose at Gethsemane Cemetery. I have been there once before with them back in 2020. On the way there, Mom called me to see where I was. I told her that we were doing a cemetery run with Ben's mom and sister. Mom was going to go shopping and wanted me to go with her. I told her it was going to be a couple hours. She said that was fine. I added that I would call her when we were on our way home.
We got to the Gethsemane Cemetery, parked near the headstone, got out and Trish and Amy prepared the roses. It was chilly so we all are glad we brought warm jackets. I had Trish, Ben and Amy share stories about them. It was fun to hear their stories as they reminisced about James and Rose. We stayed for just under an hour. We got back in our cars and drove to the short distance to Auburn.
We rolled up to the Mountain View Cemetery. I have been here a couple times over the years, once for geocaching and the other was for Bonnie's funeral in December 2020. We followed Trish to the headstone, parked and walked over the wet grass to the resting place. They prepared the roses. Everyone said a few words, told stories and remembered some of the good times. I actually spent some time with Bonnie, so I had some stories about her.
I asked if we could get the geocache in the cemetery and everyone said sure. We got back in the cars and drove to it since it was not a short walk. I had them follow me to the posted coords. We parked, got out and found the film cannister behind a tree. We signed our names, got a group photo and put Auburn 2015: Auburn Mountain View Cemetery (GC64CW3) back in its hiding spot. Trish thanked us for a great time, we gave out hugs and headed down to Hwy 167.
My original plan was to go see Ms. Hamel and Peg, but they were busy, so instead, we drove towards home. We got onto 512 and merged onto I-5. I called Mom to see if she was still shopping and where she was. I had Ben drop me off at JoAnne's in West Olympia. We went to Target, the Goodwill to drop off stuff to the donation center drive thru, went to McDonald's for a snack, TJ Maxx, World Market, the mall and then to Alicia's house to let her dogs out. From there, we went to the Dollar Tree in Tumwater and then she dropped me off at home. We unloaded my stuff out of here Expedition, and she went home.
While we were shopping the Apple Cup was on. We held our own and probably should have beaten the overrated Huskies. They got lucky with a hold on a 4th down and converted it due to that hold that wasn't called. If it was called, we would have beaten them. Thus, ruining their season. But it was part of the script, the Huskies were supposed to win, unfortunately. I hate the current state of college sports. Between the NIL, the portal and the dissolution of the Pac-12 because of greed, college sports are going to suck!
I texted Fitzy to see if she still wanted to hang out. She was in town for the weekend staying with her sister. She texted me back and said yes. I met her at the Ram for a beer and a pretzel and cheese appetizer. Since it was close to my birthday, she paid for the drinks and snack. We chatted about a lot of things including the new developments about our friends, wedding stuff and the possibility of moving back into Rainier this summer. She told me about her work trips, the marathons and runs she was training for and some of the home improvement projects she and Chaise have been taking care of. I thanked her for the food and the visit and gave her an awkward hug just for fun.
I stopped at the Walmart to get a few things, got gas at the Arco and went home. I spent some of the evening cleaning the house a little bit and wrapped some presents.
I got in a shower and then went to bed because I was tired from all the stuff we did that weekend.
Sunday, November 26th
I set my alarm for about 9:30 but actually got up around 10 after lying in bed. Mom called to see when I was coming out to get the truck. I got ready to go, ate a quick breakfast, made Ben get out of bed, he got ready and ate a quick breakfast as well. We drove out to Rainier and picked up the gold truck. Of course, we had to pet Kirby and Chloe.
We drove back into town, loaded up our garbage cans and headed to Hawks Prairie to the kingdom of dumps! It wasn't super busy, so we were able to get in and out quickly. Sinc we were on that side of town, we stopped at Costco for a few things, went home, unloaded the cans and we went inside to eat some lunch. I had a leftover turkey sandwich and some chips while we watched some of the football games. Shortly after, I went back out to Rainier to drop off the truck. I stopped by the gas station in Rainier and put $20 worth of gas into the truck.
I gave Dad the receipts, hung out for a few minutes and then went home because I had a bunch of chores to do. Erika told us that Shane and Linda had their baby that afternoon, they named her Bailey. Erika and Zac thought the name was dumb. I got home, we finished the clothes, did the dishes, put stuff away, put the Thanksgiving decorations back in their totes, fixed up the small outside tree, made turkey soup, watched football and ate popcorn.
Ben started his 100 stars before Christmas for Mario 64, it is a tradition that Ben and his dad did while growing up. He's been keeping the tradition alive since his dad passed away in 2014.
I really didn't want to go work the next day due to the sheer amount of work we're going to have to do because Comagine didn't have Friday off. Like I always say, four-day weekends go by way too fast!
Next Adventure: Choosing our Christmas Tree, Rainier City Pizza and Burgers, RHS Craft Fair and Decorating the Tree
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