Turkey Tale: A Thanksgiving Memory

I remember the thanksgiving my parents came down ( or is that up?) to Wyoming from California. I had not been able to spend a holiday with them in many years and I was excited to have my family around once again. The fixings prepared in a small kitchen caused us to bustle and bump into one another in non stop fashion, and my mom's ability to still " Mother me" in how to cook various recipes was getting a little, well, unnerving.

Mind you I had cooked everything for many years without her but now that she was here I needed to clip my thoughts and just be happy I had family to fuss at. I opted to give her the pumpkin pie, it is for sure not my specialty and a good way to keep her busy in something she professed to be good at. Ok, mission accomplished!

I began to season the turkey to put it in the oven when my mother peered over and just happened to mention, "Well, are you going to put it in a basting bag or anything?" I shrugged and told her no, I didn't have any and that I had always just cooked my turkeys in tinfoil.

"Oh No! You can even cook turkey in a paper bag, it keeps the moisture in." A paper bag mom? I don' t know... "Yes, I always have." Something about this boded ill.

My mother is a curious woman so I cautiously listen to her at times. Cooking has long been a thing we have (my sister and I) teased her on, Saying she would put hot sauce in vanilla pudding etc. In truth, that just might happen. But one thing she is not, in her wiry little 5 foot 2 frame, is someone easily argued with.

I watched worriedly as she put my beautiful Bird in a brown paper sack and sealed its doom.

I hurried about the house picking up, cleaning china, cutting vegi's. Mom mixed her pumpkin goo and moaned from the kitchen,"hmm, this is not solidifying, it always has before." I eyed the liquid substance in a ginormous bowl, knowing we weren't going to be having pumpkin pie this year. " We'll maybe if I put it in the crust , and stick it in the fridge..." I left the room , poor pumpkin soup pie.
Suddenly I heard a scream from the kitchen, " OH NO!!!!" I entered just in time to see my mom running from the stove, hopping back and forth with a flaming turkey mitted between her baking gloves" Oh ! Oh! Oh! she kept saying, not knowing what to do as she shifted the pan away from here and bounced back and forth trying to avoid heat and flame. I opened the back porch meaning for her to set it down, so that we could throw water on it, but instead she tossed it pan and all across the deck where it slid across the iced porch and dangled precariously near the edge. I ran over and threw snow on it and wafts of smoke poured from the remaining fragments of paper bag. I looked at mom, she looked at me, eyes as big as saucers.

" Paper bag mom" I said. " well I have done it a million times, that's never happened. "mmmm."

Peeling the charred bag off the turkey, I was amazed to see a still edible bird hiding within..Thank GOD!

Many times in our lives, disaster strikes,and hard times hit. stuff happens, and we forget that through all the stress and all the trouble, the moments we oft times remember the most, and are even fondest of are those times when we thought we were in the absolute worst possible situation. Mom and I had been so stressed worrying and fussing over the thanksgiving meal that the crazy inferno reprieve hit us both at the same time. And we began to laugh so hardily tears streamed down our eyes... we laughed until are stomachs hurt and we were babbling out what had happened our husbands shaking their heads and shrugging when they left the room still blissfully unaware of the bag basted bird now simmering in tinfoil in the oven.

Listen lovies, these are the moments to cherish those where families gather, memories are made, enjoy them, don't forget your blessings! Learn how to laugh a little in the stress, find the humor in the craziness of life it has always been there, God has it stored in the crevices of your heart. Find them, enjoy them, cherish them.

And the turkey by the way was fabulous, and had a lovely smoked flavor you just couldn't put your finger on. We went pumpkin pie less that year, turkey tax apparently.

Be blessed and have a wonderful Thank filled holiday!