Christmas Polly

I know...I'm cruel. I just couldn't resist!

You want me to stick my hand where?!

I really wanted to cook a turkey for Christmas. It was my first time. I really don't like touching any kind of poultry. Just don't like the feel of it-mostly the wings. If you look closely there is still feather parts on the wings-YUCK! So the moms were over yesterday for cookie baking. Connie and Jadah were there too. Connie was nice enough to catch my whole ordeal on camera and video...sorry no video.















By the end of the rinsing part I was pretty comfortable with the bird-until my mom said to stick my hand inside it to really get it cleaned out. No way! So Margaret stuck her hand in there and got some gizzard stuff out. I lathered it up with butter, stuffed it with onions, garlic, and turkey herbs (they sell it at Cub). It smelled sooo good. I took some of the butter and herbs and shoved it under the skin - delicious smelling. My mom stayed through the cooking, but then I had to kick her out during the carving. There was a knife involved and I didn't want her to get hurt. The meat was so tender that I couldn't pull the legs off like I was supposed to. The bone just came right off. So the dark meat looks more like shredded turkey, but the white meat turned out very nice. I put it all in a crock pot with the juice from the pan. We'll see how it tastes today.

Oh, and the cookies turned out good too.

Posing Pretty

I told her to look pretty.

Time Off

I was really wondering what I was going to do for two weeks off. Part of the time I will be up north at my parents cabin. The last two day has been getting ready for Christmas. I had no presents purchased. Yesterday I mailed off the Christmas cards, did most of the Christmas shopping, brought Polly to the vet and then went to Petco. I did get some things done around the house too-started the laundry. I always have a problem finishing the laundry.

Today has also been a busy day. All the presents are wrapped that were purchased. The house is cleaned and ready for Christmas dinner cooking and baking. I finally put some pictures in the frame in our room. I also put up one of those decal wall art above our bed.



Polly has been frolicking in the snow. She is so funny when she comes back up her face is full of snow!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!

Surprise Party

It was a success! Margaret was completely surprised. I thought for sure I was going to blow it when I answered the door and couldn't wipe the grin off my face. Mike quickly suggested she go upstairs to check out our Christmas tree. Everyone was crouched down or hiding around the corner. As she went upstairs everyone popped out and yelled SURPRISE! We had a large group of family and friends (somehow they all fit in our living room and kitchen) over yesterday afternoon to surprise Margaret for her birthday (which was actually on Friday). I have never thrown a surprise party. I have hosted a few holidays and had guests over, but never this large and a surprise. We had a great spread of food, Jon's grandpa hooked us up with the same beef that we had at the wedding and he brought over his wings. I made mashed potatoes and heated up the left over potatoes from the wedding (don't worry they were frozen the whole time). I made a bunch of appetizers/snacks and we had the whole sheet cake left over (also was frozen) from the wedding. I didn't have any of the wedding cake except the piece that Jon fed me. Even after being frozen for over a month that cake was sooo good. Super moist. Lots of photos were taken-see Facebook.