turkeys are for riding and calling, "whoa, big kitten!"

so i'm not sure if anyone was aware, but last week was thanksgiving. it's a little holiday my close friends and family like to celebrate, and it commemorates when the pilgrims successfully warded off an invasion of aliens and predators. there was a movie made about it a few years ago with danny glover, but it was set in futuristic L.A., so it wasn't very realistic.



squirrel is only 5 months old, so this is her first thanksgiving. meagan forced her to get excited.

anyhow, this holiday is essentially an eating event. well, it's also a drinking event, and if your family is anything like mine, it is also an arena to air your familial grievances and catch up on juicy gossip about unknown relatives.

meagan and i, being displaced northerners, decided we would host this year. this meant we woke up early, survived the throng of shoppers at our local mart, and made side dishes to complement a turkey stuffed with a duck, that heretofore, had been living inside of a ham.

here meagan made a yukon potato something to complement my ham sauce. yum. our guests also brought stuffings, greens, pies and much to drink.

i don't really know why, but we always eat this dinner at a ridiculously early time. why is that? when we are old people, will we eat this meal even earlier? that would be scary.

anyhow, our friends began to show up at like noon and joined squirrel to watch the detroit lions get massacred. those poor lions. they're not going to win this year, are they?

right, so we had about 8 people come over

and they wanted what indy wanted....

a kitty cat! oh wait, that wasn't it. they all wanted a turkey. this was the first turkey i've ever made, and i didn't really know what to do. i called my mom like 10 times to ask inane questions, like, "where did the head go?", "should it's tail be this long?", and, "is a giblet the same as a gerbil?"

my mother, while stupefied with my idiocy, was extra patient, and in the end, kitty city et al. had exactly what they wanted.

when the food eating was over, we undid our belts, aired our grievances, and sat, drinks in hand, in front of the football proceedings.

and when i say football proceedings, i don't mean toby's junk. i mean we sat on the couch and consumed many-a-bag of cheese balls served from a football. why are these the best food in the world? anyone? anyone? cartwright?

my first southern thanksgiving was wonderful. as far as i know, people had a fine time, didn't stuff their food into their napkins, did not get boccilism, or food-related misery, and meagan had an excuse to terrify squirrel with drunken snuggles for an entire day! the only thing that could make this better is what i think makes everything better: an unrelated theme! maybe next thanksgiving can be "dress as your favorite animal", "80's rich", or "bring your lost son to thanksgiving day."