Thanksgiving With Family

As previously mentioned here, I have a large family. I have 2 Aunts and 5 Uncles. So thanksgiving at grandma's house was always a crowded affair. Grandma would cook the biggest turkey in the Universe, and leftovers were unlikely.

When we moved from Grandma's house to the apartment on California, we started having Thanksgiving dinner at our place. I believe mom had had enough of her siblings for a while.
That first year, mom made the Universe's largest turkey. It was 23 lbs. I was so heavy, it bent the oven rack. She forced stuffing into every nook and cranny of the bird, and packed the leftovers all around it. I think she prepared a good 5 lbs of stuffing. She made sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, and that horrible "salad" with peeled grapes and raisins in it. (I think it's a Waldorf salad. It's grapes, raisins, shredded carrots and marshmallows. Why is this food?)

Hang on a sec. I'm breaking my cardinal rule here, and ranting instead of writing, but bear with me... or skip this part if my life as an adult bores you.
Ages ago, I was at a New Years Eve party. One of my friends had somehow come up with a disgusting mix of foods, and just had to share it with everyone. She'd rush up and whisper, "cinnamon mayonnaise." Then laugh while you made faces at the taste that had suddenly appeared in your mouth.
This spawned "The Disgusting Food Game", which my hubby and I play with our son. The idea is to pick 2 foods that individually taste good, but together would taste horrible, and say them out loud. An example would be "crab leg brownies". You win if you can get everyone to make a face.
My son would spend hours (if we'd let him) making up strange things. Anyway, I think Waldorf salad should win the Disgusting Food Game hands down. I mean, really; marshmallow grapes is strange, marshmallow raisins is bad, and marshmallow carrots is just plain nasty. Ok, back to the story:

We had leftovers through Christmas vacation. We had to pitch the stuffing because it started growing mold. We had turkey sandwiches almost every day for lunch. I thought I'd never want to eat turkey again. I didn't eat any of the Waldorf salad.

The next thanksgiving, Tru-Buy had some Rock Cornish Game Hens. They were only a dollar a piece, and we bought 3. We each got to dress our own bird. It was a lot of fun. The cat kept jumping up on the table and trying to steal them. By the time the hens made it into the oven, all of them had teeth marks.

Believe it or not, that is not the funniest cat vs. Thanksgiving story in my repetoire. Mom had rescued a kitten and brought it home. He was so tiny, she could hold him in one hand. He had outsized ears and a pointy little face. Gremlins had just come out in the theaters, and he looked like a black and white version of those evil green critters, so we named him Gremlin. Boy did that cat live up to his name. He had a fetish for stinky things, like shoes and armpits. We would take off our shoes when we got home from school, and he would promptly bury his head in them. If you tried to take the shoes away, he would scratch you. He would also hop onto my boyfriends laps, purring away, and slowly creep his way toward their armpit. Then he'd shove his head in there and start sniffing. Then he would lick. I always said at this point, "You might want to move him..." and wait. A few good licks would drive the cat into a frenzied desire for the smell, and he would bite their armpit. (tee hee)
Needless to say, Gremlin was aptly named. We first discovered it when Gremlin was still a kitten. Mom was again making a gigantic turkey, and gremlin hopped up onto the table and snagged it by the foot. We all laughed at the cute little kitten who's eyes were bigger than his stomach. Then that beast started dragging the turkey away. We thought that was pretty funny too, and mom said, "Where's my camera? This is great!"
We stopped laughing when the turkey hit the floor. All that seasoning work down the tubes. We had to wash off the turkey and start from scratch.