Turkey lurkey.

So, by last week, no one in my family had opted to cook "The Big Dinner".

It seemed as though my parents needed a break from doing it since they have been utterly silenced about the subject and Thanksgiving was boycotted (Jody and I, instead, made it a FUN day of making turkey pot pies and tourteires). And my brother and his wife were "going to the cabin in the bush" given that his wife would be working during most of the holidays and this would be her only break.

So with that in mind and the need for my Type-A list making and planning ahead, I volunteered Jody and I's "expertise" (or just plain ignorance??) in making "The Big Dinner". We've only cooked a turkey once or twice before but we REALLY wanted a nice family din-din this year (last year was kind of a gong-show). So we decided to do it ourselves and have our own shin-dig.

*Of course we invited everyone over if they were, at all, interested....*

And whatya know....they were all gung-ho, able and willing to come on down on the big day! Cancel the Christmas dinner boycott! And cancel that cabin thing in the bush!

Free food brings the masses, I guess, lol!

My mom had the sniffles at the offer and my dad was excited about "not having to cook this year!!!" And of course, my brother's stomach leads him to wherever he goes, so that was a given, LOL! He even offered to buy the biggest and baddest turkey (as long as we were cooking it, LOL)! The Grandpa and his girlfriend will also be showing up which will be interesting as well (he's, unfortunatley, not that tight-knit with us grandkids but Brooklyn loves him so it'll be fun watching her bug the old guy, LOL) ...

I'm not gonna lie: it's going to be a big challenge...thank gawd I have that week off and can plan days ahead as to how exactly I'm going to prepare all the food (side dishes & desserts the night before and turkey & stuffing on the big day itself, seeing as I only have one oven; I did mention I was Type A, did I not?!).

We will be up bright and early with Brooklyn watching her open up a tonne of gifts and then start our preparation and cooking that should be ready by about noon-ish. And with Jody being the brilliant chef he is (seriously, if he wasn't a mechanic I'd encourage him to become a chef because he LOVES to cook and he's BRILLIANT at it!!!) he will be an amazing help in the kitchen as well, if he manages NOT to take over (which he usually does anyways, lol).

I've also got my mom's famous and MOST DELICIOUS EVER stuffing recipe so I think we're all set!

Anyhow, I'm pretty excited about doing this yet reality is setting in and I'm also starting to panic, hehe! But I guess that is what my parents have gone through for the last, hmmmm, 35 years! So I'll take it and make it great for them and for all of us too.

Cannot wait!!! =)