The Completely Unrefined Thanksgiving

I’m going to blame the camera for this. My turkey looked really pretty in real life. Well, okay, not really.

That right there is a picture of the product of my hard work, study, planning, and worry. It’s a damn turkey, and it was delicious.

I had the most awesomely unrefined Thanksgiving. Let me explain.

Thanksgivings are normally just my parents and I. It is easy to not do anything for just three people. Last year, I decided to stop that tradition and made my first Thanksgiving.  This year, I did it again.

The food was wonderful, maybe too wonderful, but nothing was exactly classy. Tinfoil pans are win. I got fancy and opened a can of jelled cranberry sauce and whole berry cranberry sauce and mashed them up to achieve the appropriate cranberry to “sauce” ratio. Green bean casserole is ridiculously simple. Most of it comes from cans. My stuffing was Stove Top, but I did thinly slice some celery to toss in there to class it up some.

We ate it off of paper plates in our living room. We did use utensils, at least. The television was on, but we did actually interact with one another. There was no griping, and everyone was pleasant. (I had threatened to hand out stabbings to anyone who was grumpy. Threats work well, especially if people aren’t sure if you are joking.)

In short, it looked nothing like the way we think Thanksgivings should look.

I’m exhausted. I’m overfull. Mostly, though, I’m really pleased.

It wasn’t a scene from a movie, but my family tried. They knew how important it was, and they worked hard to make the day good. My family will never be a scene from a movie, well not a movie about a normal family anyway, but they always manage to surprise me and do their best to be what I need. It is all I could ever ask for.

So, was it worth the work?

Absolutely… Tinfoil pans, paper plates, and all.

My turkey looks like a monster about to terrorize a small town if you look at it right, or a spooky cave of death.

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