Thanksgiving

As with everything else this year, Thanksgiving looked a bit different than in years past. I had to work Wednesday night and Thursday night which meant that I needed to sleep all day Thursday. Our original plan was to do a little birthday party for Annaliese and Owen's birthday at dinner time and then we would all get together on Saturday for our big Thanksgiving turkey dinner. However, with the latest recommendations to stay home, we decided to skip the big family get-together. 

I started Thanksgiving off with a hospital-provided Thanksgiving meal at midnight...it was tasty and included all the fixings! 

We still planned on eating our turkey on Saturday, so we started the prep Friday evening. After some discussion over how to cook the turkey, we decided to sous vide the bird. I found a recipe online that made the whole process look much easier than it actually was! We started by spatchcocking the turkey...who knew that was even a thing! It would probably have been easier if the turkey was fully thawed. Or smaller. But Grandpa likes leftover turkey so I was told to get a big one. This one weighed in at 21 pounds. And then we seasoned it, bagged it up, and used a cooler to sous vide it for 12 hours. Once the 12 hours was up, it went into the oven for half an hour; then it was time for dinner. It was delicious!! We added a few simple sides of green beans, and a sweet potato/apple/sausage 'stuffing' and ended with a gluten free pumpkin pecan pie. 

When we weren't busy prepping food or eating, we were busy playing games. Skip-bo and Solitaire are the current favorites. 

We also fit in a nice afternoon hike on a new trail with some gorgeous views.

This is definitely one of those years where we didn't get to celebrate like we normally do, yet it was such a relaxing day and there is still so much to be thankful for.