Remember When ↠ l.p.

Happy Thanksgiving

One week later................

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I grab Tessie's arm, preventing her from picking up the dish she was about to transfer from the counter to the dinner table. "Not that one honey, take the sweet potato casserole." I nod my thanks to her as she carefully grabs the dish by the covered handles, since the pot is still warm. I watch her for a few seconds as she walks carefully but quickly over to the table, placing it in the center. I turn back to the stove, steam rolling up from the pot of green beans and the pan of boxed mashed potatoes that I'm heating up. Everything has been crazy this morning but luckily the girls have been very helpful. They pop in whenever there's a commercial break to move things or break me things since I've been stuck over the stove since 8am. 

The doors are left open so I can still hear the TV, the performers and marching bands playing and making me hum and dance a little in the kitchen while I hear the girls laughing or discussing what's happening on the screen. It's my first time hosting Thanksgiving and while I've helped my mother with it multiple times before, I've never actually done it on my own. Currently, my parents are on the road driving over and Louis and Harry went out for breakfast (obviously not understanding the tradition that is watching the entire parade in the morning without breaks) with Darcy and are picking up Liam as soon as the finish.

So it's just me and the girls for the moment, I'm almost glad. As worried as I am about getting everything finished on time and cooked thoroughly and not burning anything, I'm glad that the kitchen isn't full of people trying to "help".  Cailyn and Tessie have actually been helpful, but there have been several times I've had to step away to help them or correct something they tipped over. 

"It's starting!" Cailyn calls from the living room. They've cleverly worked out a system, one of them will come in to help me while the other stays to watch the commercials and call when the parade starts again. I smile down at Tessie as she runs past, slipping and sliding in some of her new, super-fuzzy socks that she got recently. I chuckle and turn back to the stove. 

I started cooking, really, last night by setting some things out and even mixing up a few things and layering some of the casseroles. Then as I was falling to sleep I figured out when I should bake what, how long things would take and which should go first. Some things are easier to heat up than others. So far I've gotten the mac & cheese casserole, the sweet potatoes, croissants, and stuffing cooked. I have the rice cooker running, the turkey is still cooking, for another half hour or so. I opted out of doing any ham, afraid that it might be taking on more than I could handle for my first year hosting Thanksgiving dinner.  I've got beans and more potatoes cooking and I'm planning on doing some broccoli. Anything else is in the fridge and can be set out easily, such as the cranberry sauce, the potato salad, fruit, and salads. 

It makes me tired just running through the list of what I've made or still have to make. However, I'm very proud of my success so far. I called mother last week and asked her a multitude of questions and wrote down corrections on the recipes I'd written down from memory. Although she offered to come up earlier, so she could help, I turned her down. She's done it for so many years, even before I had Cailyn I would sometimes have friends over to our Thanksgiving dinners. They were amazing and the highlight of the holiday. I wanted to do it for her this year, I want to relieve her of it for at least one year and show in some little way how thankful I am for the years she did it. While I'm sure it won't be as good as her's I hope it'll still be alright. 

I hear the doorbell ring and grin, someone is here! "Cailyn!" I call out loudly so I can be sure that she'll hear me. "Come watch this food for a minute while I answer the door!"

"But I could-" she shouts back and I hear her pause in the hallway.

"No ma'am! Come in here and watch this, yell if it starts burning or smoking a lot, okay? I'll be right back." I pull her into the kitchen and scoot past her and towards the front door. "Mother!" I smile and wrap her in a hug, walking backwards with her into the hallway and away from the door so that Dad can squeeze in.

"Louis and the others are right behind us," Mother says with a smile as she releases me so I can great Dad. "and can I just say how wonderful it smells in here! Are you sure you don't need any help?" 

"I'm sure!" I laugh, turning so I can hug her again. "You two go hang out in the living room with the girls, it won't be long now!" I turn back to the door and peak my head out, looking down towards the elevator. Sure enough the doors open and spill out 3/5 (3/4 whatever, fight me) of the band and their newest, tiny addition clad in pink. I grin and wave towards them. It's looking to be a perfect Thanksgiving. Everyone is here and I honestly couldn't picture anything being better than it already is.

Their thanksgiving is probably going to last a few more updates so sorry if that's bothersome. Remember I'm going to edit this all together at some point in the future, once I've finished. Which should be soon...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, I hope you've had a great one!