Decking the Halls while the Turkey is locked away

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was one to remember. Since I had Thanksgiving with my family in Baton Rouge last weekend, I spent Thanksgiving day in Los Angeles. I enjoy having Thanksgiving at my place for my friends who were unable to be with their families. I usually hire a caterer to cook (I can design, but can not cook), however my friends thought it would be fun to do a potluck.

So here is where the drama begins. Picture this, 10 of us in the kitchen warming up side dishes, fixing drinks, and getting ready for the Thanksgiving sit down. At the last minute we decided to put the turkey back in the oven to warm it up. Just as we are all about to begin our salad, my oven made an alarm that I’ve never heard. Then, it made a vacuum noise and the door seemed to seal tight. The next thing I see is the self cleaning light go on near the controls. Before you know it, the door is in the locked self-cleaning mode with the Turkey stuck inside! After a few calls to the 800 number, reading the owner’s manual, shutting off the circuit breaker and unsrewing all visible screws, it became evident that this was going to be a turkey-less Thanksgiving.

A few things I was especially thankful for this Thanksgiving is that I have friends who love to laugh, that side dishes never tasted so good, and not having turkey made a lot of room for dessert.

So while the turkey was locked in the oven all weekend, I’d thought I’d move right onto the next holiday by getting a tree and decking the halls. I found a great 11 foot Noble Fir. Once the tree was in place, it took half a day to install 5000 lights. The trick to lighting a tree is to wrap each branch individually with the strand of lights. I start near the trunk and work my way out each limb and then back again until each limb is covered in lights. By doing this, your eye goes beyond the surface branches, adds depth and allows you to put ornaments inside the tree that refelct the light. I typically do white lights with colorful ornaments. But since Thanksgiving was so unique this year, I thought, why not be unique with Christmas too? So, I decided to go with blue lights and silver ornaments. Sometimes experimenting can yield beautiful results.

I installed lights from 10 till 2 and finished ornaments at 11pm Saturday

The turkey is still locked in the oven

I’ll keep you posted on the malfunctioning oven - the appliance repairman is scheduled to come tomorrow between 1-5.