Restoration [Shawn Mendes] AU

Chapter 82

By the third week of November, classes at RISD were dragging on as most everyone was just trying to get to the day before Thanksgiving break, looking forward to a few days off, even those students who didn't get to go home for the holidays, since they would usually go home with a friend or have some version of their own Friendsgiving to celebrate the holiday. Because Allison wasn't going home to Ohio until Christmas break, Patrice and Gregory invited her to spend the holiday with them and some other friends of theirs who lived and worked in and around Providence, or were studying for their Masters at Brown. Patrice also had the idea she might try to do a little matchmaking if Allison and Greg's friend Dex Thompson hit it off. 

Since Michelle, Shawn, nor Stefan had celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving back in October, being too busy with school, Gran insisted that she was making a small Thanksgiving dinner for American Thanksgiving and they were requested to be there to celebrate with her. Of course Stefan was completely on board with spending a few days with his Gran to enjoy her home cooking and maybe get some more lessons in the kitchen, as she had helped him learn some basics so he could fix some simple meals before he went off to Martha's Vineyard over the summer. Michelle was fine with going to spend the day with her Gran, but she wasn't sure that she and Shawn were going to stay longer than that. Shawn enjoyed spending time with her Gran and her brother, so he was fine with whatever she wanted to do.

On the Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving, the weather reports indicated there was a winter storm brewing for the holiday and being that Thanksgiving weekend is the busiest travel time of the year, they didn't want to be unprepared in case the snowstorm proved to be more than just a few inches, so they decided to pack a few things they would need if they had to spend a couple of nights at Gran's and they would drive to Boston on Wednesday evening instead of actually going up there on Thanksgiving day. Their classes were finished by 3:30 and by 4:00 they were packed in the Jeep and headed north to Gran's house, the drive taking longer than usual due to all the holiday and rush hour traffic.

Once they finally arrived, they found Gran in the kitchen baking two pumpkin pies and two Dutch apple pies, Michelle wishing she could have been there earlier to get some pie baking practice.  They joined her in the kitchen after taking their coats off and hanging them in the hall closet and washing their hands in the powder room, intending to help her with whatever tasks she gave them to do.

"I think we can make the stuffing ahead of time and then all we have to do is take it out of the refrigerator tomorrow and let it get to room temperature before we put in the oven to bake," Gran said as she got out the cast iron skillet and a baking dish. 

Shawn and Michelle minced and diced the onion, fresh parsley leaves and celery as Gran put the other ingredients to be used on the counter, along with her recipe for them to follow the directions. Soon Michelle had the butter melted in the cast iron skillet and added the onion and celery to sauté them until softened, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes, then added the parsley, sage, thyme and marjoram for another couple of minutes before transferring everything to the large mixing bowl. Shawn brought the bread cubes over and added them as Michelle poured in 3 and half cups of chicken stock, 2 lightly beaten eggs and a teaspoon each of salt and pepper, then stirred the mixture with the rubber spatula to distribute the ingredients evenly, before scraping the stuffing into the greased casserole baking dish. She then tightly covered it with Saran Wrap and placed it in the fridge, so it was ready for baking when it was time to get the rest of Thanksgiving dinner prepared tomorrow.