Thanksgiving 2014 is history and I survived. No oven fires or slips of the carving knife to be had. Chalk it up to turkey trot endorphins, but I think I handled the in-laws and the weeks of food-prep pretty well. I don’t think I’ve ever been as exhausted as I was on Black Friday, but it’s all good. Let’s hit the highlights good-bad-ugly style:
Good: Hurricane MIL was relatively tame. I’m downgrading her to Tropical Storm MIL.
Bad: A call the night before saying “We’re bringing 6 extra people. Oh and you’ll have Coke, right? Not Pepsi or Diet or Zero.” Then none of them shows, leaving us with a Mayflower load of excess food. And Coke.
Ugly: Hearing this 10 minutes before guests arrive “Oh mom I forgot to tell you I think I saw a mouse last night. In the kitchen…”
Good: Great fun with friends at the turkey trot, even if it was freezing. Who needs extremities anyway?
Bad: One of the dogs pooped on the floor just before dessert and BIL stepped in it. Better BIL than MIL right? Wait, maybe not.
Ugly: Finding a metal shish kebob skewer by the mudroom sink and just knowing what it was used for.
Good: I made cranberry sauce for the first time and it turned out great.
Bad: Pretty sure I was the only one who freaking ate it.
Ugly: Then it went crashing to the floor. Cleanup on aisle 7.
Good: The turkeys came out roasted to perfection.
Bad: I made two. One in the oven and one on the grill. We never even got to the second one. #toomuchfood
Ugly: The oven turkey was roasted with the bag of gross giblets still inside, making MIL dance with devilish glee.
Good: Getting the 18 lb. turkey+roasting pan+grate insert thing into and out of the upper wall oven was a tad challenging for me, but I managed.
Bad: MIL stood there saying “I could lift that. I have great arms. They’re so strong and shapely, I can wear sleeveless anytime I want.”
Ugly: I arm wrestled MIL right then and there and showed her who’s boss. Ok I didn’t. But I wanted to…
Give me a good-bad-ugly about your Thanksgiving.
This is too funny! At least you can keep things in perspective and find humor in the things that didn’t go as planned over the holidays:) Oh and I hope you caught that mouse!!
This is hilarious! Cleaning up cranberry sauce – yikes, what a mess! Those upper wall ovens can be really awkward. Glad you had a good Thanksgiving and got out for the race 🙂
OMG – has that woman seen your guns? You should have just cleared the way and let her give herself a hernia or something! LOL. Sounds like you had enough food for the extra 6 (but HELLO – BYOC – bring your own Coke if you must have it.)
Erica that was my chant! BYOC!
hahaha 🙂 This list cracked me up! And yay for the downgrade to Tropical Storm … hee hee! I love a homemade cranberry sauce myself and am always surprised at how few folks will eat it. Hello? It’s like a chunky jam. Who can’t eat that?!?!
Ha! Sounds like quite the Thanksgiving! I’m so thankful that my MILs (yes, I have two) are mostly tame.
This was fantastic–laughed all the way through. Kind of wish I could go to your house on Thanksgiving…
ROFL! This was hilarious…does your MIL ever read your blog? I’d say arm wrestle her ASAP! haha!
I love you! haha! I laugh only because I can soooo relate, and life is just so funny. Grateful that you can see the humor instead of getting down. You really need to start writing for a sitcom.
This is so freaking funny! Reminds me of my house. One Christmas, a Pyrex dish exploded in the oven, the microwave caught on fire, and the upstairs toilet overflowed…all within the span of an hour. You’ve got to laugh so you do not cry!
This is like “Christmas Story” for Thanksgiving – too funny.
HA love this one!!!! Glad you survived 😉
Oh please invite me next year. I love your Thanksgiving stories! hahahaa
Glad you survived the MIL;) So rude to say 6 more are coming and none of them show up! Ugh! Isn’t it always at the worst times that the pets decide to throw up/poop;)
Love this! 🙂 I can’t believe 6 people said they were coming last minute and asked for COKE and didn’t show!! NO cool at all– sounds one a huge massive undertaking!! You did it 🙂 Congrats!!
Ugh. MIL….. don’t even get me started. That was the ugly of the holiday, for sure. I would have eaten your cranberry sauce, yum!
Oh my goodness! That’s unfortunate you have to deal with people like that 🙁
On the plus side, you will have SO MUCH TURKEY SOUP! 😀
I wish you really had arm wrestled your MIL – that could have been could entertainment.
Bummer about the call on extra people coming and then the fact that they bailed – I would not have been thrilled!!!
A stepped in dog poop is never good. Doesn’t matter who steps in it. And I’m assuming the kebab skewer that you found in the mud room was used to clean the poopy shoes. Yuck!!
Oh man, the extra people not showing up really sets me over the edge. How rude!
Ha! Does your MIL really say gems like that?! I die!
Oh my gosh I was totally picturing you arm wrestling the mothering in law…
I loved this post!!!
Oh the MIL! I’m thinking of writing a book and will be calling you for stories! The arm comment is priceless. Kudos for surviving and leaving MIL unscathed.
If your MIL gets downgraded to a tropical storm even with the whole “my arms are so shapely and strong” comments, I’d hate to see her in all her hurricane glory! 😀 –Lisa Ps. I think I saw a mouse last night…bwahahahaha!
LOL on the MIL stories! Seriously, the sleeveless arm convo did not happen…I don’t know if I could have held back on that one!
An uncomfortable moment at TG was my sister’s BF following me into the kitchen and giving me a little too tight hug…maybe it was the wine? Ayyy….
Wendy stuff like that comes out of her mouth regularly. It’s quite entertaining.
Now that hug…um yes lets hope its the wine talking…
too funny! Happy belated thanksgiving to you! I lol’d at hurricane / tropical MIL, just from the past few years of comments haha. Guess she still doesn’t have much of an online prescence!
So glad you survived Thanksgiving! I’m also glad that you shared some moments that I find rather humorous. Not sure if you do but maybe you can look back and see the fun. 🙂
My MIL got into a car accident the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and must have totally forgotten that her son (i.e, my husband) is disabled. He did way to much running and doing for her. He’s been exhausted and in bed since Monday. Nice.
Carla I totally see the humor in all of it. You kind of have to, or it’ll drive you crazy. I hope your MIL is ok and your hubby too!
What your family didn’t appreciate the fresh cranberry sauce? So easy and good. Maybe they aren’t quite used to it. I skipped Thanksgiving this year, I was on a plane. I like it that way! Did join friends and family the next day (their house) for leftovers, brought a salad and salmon for them to grill. Loved it.
Glad you survived :-).
That’s rude to announce that many additional guests at the last minute then not show. Geez. Hopefully you managed to freeze some of the delicious leftovers.