Preparing for Thanksgiving

This is the off year for the Meister Thanksgiving, meaning small. Actually the smallest Thanksgiving I, in all my 61 years can remember. We have only 15 people coming. It seems the new gathering place for Thanksgiving in our extended family will be Gulf Shores in future years. This year there are at least 7 of the families there. Rachel posted the picture below of the 2:00 pm football game on the fun schedule:

Rebekah posted the picture below of the fishing and then of course eating at one of the restaurants near the beach across from Souvenir City.

They had a short video posted of Justin Herman pulling in a fish but I wasn't able to share that. 

Mike and Diane are there now working on their condo so Ebby has been staying over here with us. Today on the walk she found a deer leg to carry around.

She was so proud of this bone that she even growled at Miss Molly who had no desire to even touch that stinky thing. Emma could hardly stand that Ebby had this prize and lay down close just staring, hoping and dare I say praying Ebby would forget about the leg and walk away but alas that was wishful thinking. Ebby dragged it home with her and for the first time since Mike and Diane left she is staying home. She doesn't want to share such a prize and would not be allowed to bring it in this house anyway.
Right after the walk I drove to Hoerr Vet clinic in Morton, IL to pick up Jewel's filly's coggins and health certificate for her trip down to Texas. She will be leaving Monday or Tuesday next week. Just so happens Walmart is a couple blocks from the vet clinic so that is the store that got my business today. Lots of good ingredients for baking pies and cooking delicious dishes for tomorrow. As soon as the groceries were unloaded the oven was turned on and the pies started. By the time mom called to report the turkey was done, most of the cooking over here was finished too. With so few people coming only 5 pies were baked. Mom baked an apple pie while I baked 3 pumpkin and 1 pecan. The potatoes were peeled and placed in salted water until tomorrow when they will be mashed. The sweet potatoes baked, then peeled and mashed with butter and a little salt in a casserole dish. Tomorrow that can be just put in the oven to warm. I took a bunch of the food that didn't need refrigeration over to mom's and just had to take a picture of  the turkey. Mom makes the very best:

 Mom does not have a recipe for stuffing, she just adds lots of ingredients and each year it is fantastic. The dining room table is set for the 12 adults coming and the small table is set for the 3 children. 

Sarah and Nolan made it down to Dallas, TX with Ben and Taunya's kids in the middle of the night. Jack woke up this morning saw the pool, ran outside in his pjs and jumped in. The pool is not heated and was around 51 degrees. He didn't even care. Taunya posted the picture below taken later, after Jack got his swim suit on.

I can see we will need to visit them a lot this winter. Mark came home tonight and after all that cooking and baking there was nothing prepared for dinner. Not only that I didn't want to even think of cooking dinner. Thankfully Mark likes tuna fish, a can was opened fancied up and dumped on a salad. He was happy and so was I. Today was a cold rainy day again. Titan, Ribbon's orphaned colt and Jewel's filly were brought inside for the day and will be left in the stall until morning. We can't take a chance on Titan getting sick. The stall was cleaned again tonight, water buckets filled and more grain given. While I was working he manured and urinated so I'm sure he is getting enough. Lots to be thankful for.  I'm heading to bed now because before church I still need to get a few last minutes of cleaning in.