Another Thanksgiving

Well it's about 8 PM EST and another Thanksgiving dinner is done and over with. Thanksgiving always ends up being a long day and that is if all goes smoothly, which most times it doesn't. Today was no exception. Today I had to take care of cooking the turkey and making the dressing. My parents did not take the turkey out soon enough from the freezer. They put it in the fridge to thaw out about 3 days ago. They keep the fridge at a lower temperature than most people, so when I pulled the turkey out this morning, it was still mostly frozen. I ended up having to try to thaw it out in cold water. I started this process about 10 AM. Around 1 PM, I decided that I needed to get the bird in the oven. It seemed to have thawed out some. I tried to get the giblets and neck out of the inside of the turkey but it was still frozen in there. I went ahead and put the bird in the oven. It stayed in there for a total of 5 1/2 hours at 375 degrees and this was only a 13.5 pound turkey. About an 1 1/2 hours before the turkey was done, I made the dressing and got that cooked up in the oven. Everyone was scrambling around, trying to get everything timed and cooked around the same time as the turkey. It was all guess work because of the originally frozen turkey. Everything was finally done around 6:30. We were done eating by 6:50. Then of course it takes at least an hour to put leftovers in containers, clean all pots, pans, dishes, utensils and just about every other known item that one would stock a kitchen up with and a few extra ones just for good measure. When I look back on the long day, with everything that went into it, it all seems so silly. All the time spent in preparation and cleanup and spending only 20 minutes to eat.....I sure hope that by the time Thanksgiving comes around again next year, that McDonalds has decided to offer some type of Turkey sandwich or maybe some turkey mcnuggets and a side of fries covered with turkey gravy. Take my word for it...I will be there.