Gobble, Gobble!

We spent our Thanksgiving day with our pastor's family at their home in Oxnard, CA. Jason made his incredibly delicious Herbes de Provence turkey again this year. I went out Wednesday afternoon to pick up our free-range bird and that evening Jason did all of the prep work (stuffing the turkey with lemon, orange, and onion wedges as well as sprigs of rosemary, oregano, and parsley and then rubbing a butter and Herbes de Provence mixture all over on top...yum!) Early yesterday morning, Jason got up early to put the turkey in the oven and to make me breakfast :)



There is really nothing like the smell of a turkey roasting in the oven! My whole life, I have enjoyed waking up on Thanksgiving morning and knowing that I didn't have to get up early and go to school and being able to luxuriate in the smell of the turkey that my dad already had in the oven. It still is just as wonderful to be a grownup and smell a roasting turkey! We had a minor issue when our throw-away roasting pan developed a leak, but we successfully improvised and we had plenty of pan juices for Jason to also make quite the fantastic gravy to go with our bird. Wednesday afternoon/evening, I had made an apple pie and a Lemon Chess pie to add to our contributions to the Thanksgiving table. We had great time being with our pastor and his family and parents, and other church members. They have four older teenagers and we had fun hanging out with them as well as tackling a tough puzzle, listening to some random music (including Alice's Restaurant...a Rogge Thanksgiving tradition!) and then playing Taboo. Today, I am using the turkey carcass to make Turkey Stock and then we'll have Turkey soup tomorrow...double yum!



And, this is Lucy's idea of a gobble, gobble Thanksgiving feast! We took her to the beach this morning, where there was a plethora of pelicans. Three pelicans happened to be separated from the rest of the flock and Lucy charged right into the water after them...poor girl, she's always soooo hopeful to catch up to the sea lions swimming offshore and now the birds disappear too!