Inside Out

This vase of flowers from my husband started my Thanksgiving, which was also my birthday (falls on this day every 7 years). The lilies are big and fat and the roses pink & fragrant. He brought these to me with a sweet card and a fresh pot of coffee...ahhhhh. Then we drove up to Napa where my sister was hosting Thanksgiving. The drive is only a little over an hour so that is a treat in itself.

We actually ended up with the grouping of family we expected at Christmas, but Thanksgiving turned itself inside out this year.


Originally, we were due to visit my in-laws for several days but the entire household became ill and we didn't get a phone call until Tuesday. I thought, wow, so maybe we'll just stay home but we aren't prepared to cook a turkey dinner, and I sure didn't want to spend my birthday doing THAT! So I called Sis and she was SO happy since her regular group of people weren't coming and she was down to her family of 3 plus her father-in-law.

As it turns out, my dad & stepmom had to cancel their southern California plans as well, so they were looking for an invite somewhere. We ended up with 9 munchers and Sis was so happy to insert her table's extension to accommodate us all. She and her dad-in-law fixed all the food while her husband smoked a turkey and baked pies.

The side dishes were pretty awesome and it was tough to pick a favorite. When I was young, I would demand one entire turkey drumstick which is pretty crazy since we were a family of nine who always had one other family of 6 at the table. But I got it a couple of times.

Well, bro-in-law offered the drumstick to me so I happily took it...heehee.

It will be interesting to see what happens at Christmas! Did any of you have a quick flip flop of plans for turkey day? I'm wondering if this occurred for a lot of people this year.