Thanksgiving countdown

I haven't been looking very forward to Thanksgiving this year. We've had an absolutely amazing year, and I've been thankful every single day of it. I don't need a special day--all I could think was that I'd have to make a turkey, cook like a fiend, and it wouldn't count as a school day here. (Am I a little too focused on school?)

We brainstormed about other possibilities, coming up with a few great alternatives, but Robert really wanted a traditional day for the first year in our new house.

It wasn't feeling special to me. While we've not lived near family for five years, Robert and I look forward to holidays that we spend alone. As a kid, though, it stinks. And we've had a lot of alone time here--I treasure it, but one more day of it is not really so special.

Robert invited our neighbors to share Thanksgiving with us, along with their grown daughter who lives nearby. And I'm thankful about that.

I adjusted our menu to better suit more people and to eliminate any iffy recipes. Robert went to the store for me this morning. And I'm thankful!

I started cooking around noon. Today, I've made:

• mashed potatoes

• stuffing -- a new recipe, I'm cooking it outside of the bird for the first time. I even toasted and cubed the bread myself.
  

• spinach Madeline -- a new recipe that Ginger posted this morning. Trevor taste-tested it and declared it "only the best thing EVER!"
  

• pickled eggs -- don't know if I'll serve them tomorrow, but they're done.

• turkey brine

And I'm really thankful that I was able to get all of this done today.

My turkey's in the brine right now. I've never brined a turkey before. It's in a giant soup pot in my fridge, on a glass shelf. I'm quite convinced/praying it won't break the shelf and dump two gallons of turkey brine all over my floor, under the kitchen cabinets and down the bare wood basement steps. I'm nervous about going to bed. Silly, because I won't be able to do anything anyway, even if I'm awake. And if it holds, well, I'll be really thankful.


Meanwhile, one of my loopy friends mentioned the cold weather in Denver today. It was in the 20s--for the high, and it will be like this for a few days. We had low 70s here. We've had the windows open for two days; I even found two happy spring-like bugs in my house this morning. And even though it will be 25 degrees cooler this weekend, I'm definitely thankful for this gorgeous weather!

(And for being able to wear capris and a t-shirt, lol!)