Thanksgiving 2011

My parents came down from Northern California on Tuesday night to celebrate Thanksgiving with Sam and I.  On Wednesday, while Sam and I were at work, they unloaded their car and brought into the apartment all of our Christmas gifts from the Santi and Galle sides of the family, the serving dishes and little things Nonna Santi sent me, and the Thanksgiving Dinner stuff- Mom's roasting pan, the electric knife, etc.  

I came home, and we went through some of our family photos from wine tasting this summer so my Mom could pick some for the family Christmas card.  While we were on the couch around the computer, I showed them the ease and convenience of Shutterfly for making Christmas Cards.  Dad loved it.  We picked out the background and the photos right then and there and ordered them the cards.  Not too bad at all!  And just in time for Sam to get home from the hospital and for us to head to Mom and Dad's favorite sushi restaurant, Buddah's Favorite, for dinner.  

Thursday morning, Dad was hurting for a lack of football.  Sam and I cancelled our cable TV while I was unemployed and we haven't set it back up yet.  He went down to Mutt Lynch's on the peninsula to watch the Green Bay v Detroit game while I got the Turkey going.  Mom wasn't feeling 100% so she stayed mostly out of the kitchen, and since Sam was gone working, this was really my first Thanksgiving that I cooked solo.  We perfected our Crockpot Turkey method this year by performing a double wing-ectomy which helped the lid fit snuggly on the stoneware.  While the turkey was cooking, I made my first from-scratch pumpkin pie.  It was fun!  I used a weight watchers recipe and I have to say, the phyllo dough crust wasn't all that great but the pumpkin filling was delish!  

Right around noon, Dr. Galle surprised Mom and I by coming home early- yay!  And he did Dad a big favor by figuring out how to get the Dallas v Miami game on our TV via online streaming through the laptop.  Dad was quite impressed.  Because the turkey was in the crockpot, we didn't have to do much in the afternoon.  Sam took two little cat naps, and we took a walk before the 49er game started- which we found online streaming in HD.

Dad and Sam hung out on the couches and watched the game while I made us mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and gravy.  Mom helped me out and did the stuffing on the stovetop since we had pulled the turkey out of the crockpot and put it in the oven to brown and crisp the outside.  Just FYI: we timed dinner perfectly with halftime.

After dinner, Mom and I did the dishes and the boys resumed their places on the couch to watch the end of the 3rd quarter of the game.  Unfortunately, as you know, the game did not end well for Jim Harbaugh, but at least we had wine, pie, and whipped cream to cheer us up.