Yesterday we went to the grocery store to get the minimum amount of food it would take to be satisfactual and feel like Thanksgiving. Our list consisted of: turkey, ham, instant mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, pie crust, apple pie filling, cinnamon, those one-time-use pans to cook the meat in, and vegetable oil.
75 bucks.
Yes, you heard (or read....) me correctly.
Wednesday night I desperately needed to get laundry done - being completely out of underwear will do that to ya. Tawni needed her laundry done too since she was going to Maui for Thanksgiving weekend, so we did it together. We started to watch a movie and finished our laundry pretty late, so we called it a night without finishing the movie since we both had to be up early the next day. She had a flight to catch and I had a run to complete.
Kelsey and I woke up Thanksgiving morning at 5:30 to go on a 20-mile run for marathon training. In my mind I was rationalizing that there was no way in hell I was going to make that run the day after Thanksgiving with all the food I was thinking about devouring. We spent four hours doing the damn run, got back and fell on the floor for a solid half hour, just not wanting to move.
Eventually we realized we needed to get up and start preparing for our "feast", so we started by throwing the turkey in the oven and showered. At one point we realized we needed aluminum foil, so we hobbled in our state of sore-ness to the grocery store to get some (and body wash, since I was out). What a rando Thanksgiving day purchase. We limped back just in time to cover the turkey.
Right when we got back I skyped my family for about an hour while I had some down time before the turkey was finished. It was so good to see everyone! It was also sad that I couldn't be there with everyone to joke around and eat great food and play pinochle well into the night, but skyping was the best it could get, and I was thankful I was able to at least see and chat with everyone.
After my long skype sesh, it was finally time for CHRISTMAS MUSIC! I don't know why but Kelsey and I were so excited about blasting Christmas music while cooking our Thanksgiving food, and it was the best day ever. Our turkey came out fantastic! Then we cooked the ham (or rather heated it up because we bough it pre-cooked) and followed to directions to glaze it with some brown sugar stuff. Turned out stupendous. If there was such a thing as Housewife 101, Kels and I would have aced that class.
We made the entire box of instant mashed potatoes. It seemed necessary at the time. Put our cranberry sauce in a bowl, busted out the rolls, and had ourselves a Thanksgiving feast! We loaded up our plates (that we had sneakily taken from the dining center just for this occassion - because we have no plates) and we told Ryan the RA who was joining us to bring something to drink since we had totally forgotten about that. He found a 2-liter of coke and our feast was complete. We filled our glasses (that we had also taken from the dining center) and dug in.
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| Kelsey and Janelle at the Thanksgiving table |
Conversation around the dinner table this year was different than it usually is for me. Put 4 college kids together and you're going to talk about some entertaining (and almost always disgusting) topics. But it was amusing and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
After dinner, we were succesful at keeping all the leftovers we had - and there were a lot. I had bought a set of 5 small tupperware dishes earlier in the semester, and Kelsey and I worked to cram all the leftover turkey and ham into it. We had leftover mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, too. We'll be making so many ham and turkey sandwiches I'm going to be sick of it by the time I leave this island. But when college kids buy food, they get their money's worth and eat every last morsel.
We're kind of like Native Americans who used every part of the buffalo they killed.
What a great analogy.
Then Kelsey and I baked our little mini pies that turned out absolutely adorable. We played around with the top crust on each pie and got some really cute designs.
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| So. Dang. Ador. |
We decided we needed ice cream to go with the pies, so we walked (Kelsey and I were still limping) to the 7-eleven (so classy) to buy some vanilla ice cream. We ate them while watching The Grinch and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. That was the perfect ending to the best Thanksgiving without my family I've ever had.
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| Room 603 Ohana |
This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for all my family and friends, and everyone else in my life who is alive and well. I am also thankful to have great opportunies like spending a semester in Hawaii. Without the unconditional support from my family, I would not be here right now studying animal sciences and working towards a profession where I can help sick animals. I'm also thankful for having had the best dog any pet owner could want. You helped me solidify my decision, Hanners, and I can't thank you enough for that. I'm also thankful for my roommates and good friends I've made here in Hawaii to make this Thanksgiving amazing and making this island my home away from home.
Aloha!
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