Turkey Day recap

What a day!

I ran a 5k Turkey Trot in the morning with my friends Whitney and Eunice. I was so scared that it was going to be freezing and snowing/raining but it turned out to be nice and sunny, but still cold. But above freezing temps so that was good. My goal was to finish under 38 minutes and as I passed the clock it said 32:59, which I’m sure is close to my real time since we were in the very front of the race pack at the beginning. We thought we were at the very back until everyone turned around! So, even though it felt like I was absolutely crawling at times and I was sure I was closer to 45 minutes, I’m pretty proud of my time, considering the last time I ran outside was Crazylegs of 2008! I passed 16 people (yes, I counted my “kills”)! Sure, all 16 of them were either walking or children, but 16 is 16. And who cares if 5 of the 16 wound up re-passing me. All that matters is that I wasn’t the last person to cross the finish line! I had excellent views of Whitney’s and Eunice’s bums the whole time, but I was okay with that, since Whitney is a personal trainer (who ran it 6 months pregnant!) and Eunice trains with her everyday. It was so fun to see Derrick and the girls (and Joel and Carson!) cheering me on at the end. Definitely gave me a much needed boost to sprint run a tiny bit faster to the finish line. The fact that it was downhill helped a little too.:) It always feels good to finish a race and I may have reignited my desire to run a half marathon in the spring. I’ve maybe convinced a couple friends to do it with me, so that should help in the motivation category. Now if my knees would hold up, we’ll be in business!

After the race it was back home to start cooking a bird! I used Alton’s recipe, of course. It always produces such a beautiful looking turkey. And always gives me ulcers as I try to figure out if it’s done enough, even though I always use a digital thermometer. This was my first time trussing it, and I loved how neat and tidy it made it look.

I was having major anxiety making the gravy. Derrick was putting huge pressure on me to have a tasty gravy. Luckily, Martha Stewart pulled through for me and gave me great instructions. It didn’t make a lot, but what we got was yummy. Whew.

With a few 6-foot folding tables we created a massive table in our dining room and put all the food on it. I think it worked out pretty well. We decided it would be sweet to leave a hole in the middle and hire someone to stand there and pass dishes around. Like our own person Teppanyaki chef. All the food was amazing. We had tons of it. Isn’t that was Thanksgiving is all about, abundance? We definitely were blessed with an abundance of delicious food, friends, and conversation.

My 2 little turkeys. If Summer looks like a disheveled mess, it’s because she was in heaven running around playing with tons of kids. Kids almost outnumbered the adults. 10 adults, 9.5 kids. We need a bigger house.

It was a tiring, but very fun day. I love this time of year, and I love having great friends to share it with. I love how my girlfriends feel totally at home in my kitchen and just help themselves to whatever. We are definitely not strangers, and it makes me so happy to know I have such wonderful people here to share these events with. (I know that’s not grammatically correct but I couldn’t figure out how to reword it. Probably because I was up at 4:30am SHOPPING!!!)

I hope everyone a tasty and grateful Thanksgiving. We sure did. Now that it’s over, I am realizing how much I have to do before Christmas!