Firewall, schmirewall! I want my freaking blog!

Holy bejesus, it's been a long ass time since I blogged! I actually missed this mess of randomness that only 4 other people read. (Literally - 4 people. Sad, really.) But, I love it. And I've missed it. Since I found out today it's some weird ass setting on my firewall/internet options/who the fuck knows what in Internet Explorer and I can access Blogger if I use Mozilla Firefox, I'm baaaaack!! Yay!
I have so many things I could share! Guess I'll start with Thanksgiving:

Erin and I planned an amazing feast for 14 people. We rented tables and chairs to seat everyone. I went out and bought tablecloths (natural linen from Ross for $10 each), new white plates (hello, World Market?!), and new square white serveware (1 very large platter from Target that was to-ho-tally incorrectly marked at $4.97, and 2 very large bowls from Marshall's for $9.99 each). All of them are things I've wanted anyway AND very good deals, so I really don't feel bad about it. And I think I'll probably go back and get the salad plates from WM, too. Someday. haha

My menu consisted of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, pecan pie and apple pie. Erin took on ham, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, corn bread casserole, rolls, pumpkin pie. She may have made something else, but I'll get to why I can't recall shortly. Oh - and I made some awesome sweet tea - Bill and Erin said it was just like back home. Oh, yeah. I was going to borrow my friend's spouted beverage container, but we found a 2.75 gallon one on sale at Marshall's for $20!! Yay, me! Our friend Steph brought some pumpkin goodies, too! Cookies and such. Big ol' hit.

You may remember we'd planned to do a tablescape including white mini pumpkins? That plan went bust in a hurry as we searched and searched for them. I even went to the Food Co-op in Bisbee. Wayne and I picked up some green and cream colored gourds - unusual and pretty. Our genius plan was to carve the tops out so we could use them as candle holders. Cute, right? Best laid plans... Wednesday night, Erin and her daughter, Brittany, came over to set the table. We pull our pretty gourds out and... mold. Seriously. Luckily, the cheap little pumpkins I had from mid-October were still good so we threw those on the table instead. No one can accuse us of not going with the flow!! All in all, the table turned out beautifully. But I'll let you be the judge:

The kids had slightly different settings but sat at the table with us:

I think it all turned out great!! We made the napkin rings out of felt and the place cards were a last minute project I printed from a Microsoft template and glued to leftover cardstock scraps that I tented so they'd stand up.

Here are some pictures of my pies:




And finally, the twenty pound turkey. Wayne and I brined it for 12 hours prior in a mixture of broth, water, kosher salt, lemons, garlic and herbs. I basted it every 30 minutes with broth and olive oil. Isn't it soooo pretty?? I thought it was a little dry, but everyone else seemed to like it.


Here's the kicker: Wednesday night, as Wayne and I were finishing up some cleaning and getting ready to go to bed, I said to him, "Weird. My throat kind of hurts." Little did I know I'd wake up the next morning feeling just awful. My throat was severely swollen and I spent the morning wearing a mask while I prepped the food, just in case I was contagious. By the time dinner rolled around, I was completely out of it and didn't taste a single thing I ate. I'm sure Erin's food was absolutely delish, but I couldn't taste it at all. I passed on the wine because my head was so foggy. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I think. It's all kind of a blur to me. I do remember digging out my favorite Christmas blanket and wrapping all up in it. I was freezing... only after everyone left, Wayne took my temperature and discovered a 102 degree fever. Niiiice.

Two days later, at 5 a.m., we put Jack in the car and headed out for Austin... But that's a blog for a different day.