Remember when I made a turkey?

I've now discovered that when James is here, no blogging gets done. He's a great kid, but there's very little down time. He's really easygoing- he's happy to just sit and play with his Transformers/Legos/Matchbox Cars/whatever else he's brought while John and I cook or clean or read or whatever. When I'm on the computer, though, he wants to be playing on the Lego Club website. They have some pretty fun games...we were all about the Star Wars and Harry Potter ones.

So, back to the beginning. Left Ickworth on Friday at about 4:15 - John picked me up - and got on the highway to go to James' school to pick him up from his after-school club at about 5:30. It's a 35-minute drive under normal circumstances, but Friday afternoons can get a bit hairy. Lots of traffic getting out of Bury, and then the traffic stopped dead about a mile before the Haughley Bends, which is a section of highway (moving at 70 mph) that drivers have to cross...there are ALWAYS accidents there. We sat there for about an hour, with ambulances and firetrucks and police cars going down the shoulder. We had to call Freda to ask her to pick up James, as we were definitely not going to make it. We finally got through (there had been a two-car collision) and were on our way to Freda and Travis' to collect James when Freda called and reminded John that she didn't have a key to Gillian's (James' mom's) house, and therefore hadn't been able to pick up his overnight bag. SO we had to drive all the way in to Ipswich anyway, and then back to F & T's where we had some dinner and took James home. We'd been on the road for almost 4 hours and we were completely exhausted. Phew.

Saturday (Stowmarket Thanksgiving) was completely zany- got up at 8, John went to pick up the turkey and get groceries, got back, took James to his birthday party at the Ipswich Town Football Club, took James for a much-needed haircut, came home, showered, helped me finish up the cooking, and then his parents arrived.

My day went pretty well, with the exception of the suicidal green beans (they were in the oven, warming, and completely dried themeselves out) and the oven door. Also suicidal. I was about to put the turkey in and needed to move the oven rack to the bottom setting. For some reason, Brit ovens have a glass door AND a metal one- the glass door is on the inside. I'd moved everything down to the bottom and went to close the glass door. I must have hit the glass door in the wrong spot, because it shattered into a million little pieces. NOT ok. I freaked out, swept up all the glass, and called John to inform him that I could NOT handle making Thanksgiving. He reminded me that this would be a funny story in a few years and that I was going to be fine. In went the turkey, I pulled myself together and had some lunch and finished reading Joy Luck Club, which Michelle had loaned me. V. good book, by the way.

We finished making the rest of Thanksgiving dinner without too much excitement, and then Freda and Travis came over, ate lots, and then stayed until about 9. Freda made great deserts- a fantastic apple pie and a pineapple soy cheesecake that tasted like a cross between cheesecake and key lime pie. YUM!

Yesterday was pretty chill...we went to the grocery store, did a zillion loads of laundry, and then went over for a cup of tea at F & T's. Mmm...tea. I made turkey soup from the stock, which was surprisingly good. I got the recipe from Food Network. If you use the recipe, be careful not to burn the garlic (speaking from experience, here). The soup is really good...it's not bland at all and the veggies don't get too mushy. Yum!

I miss food network. I don't really miss tv in general (we don't have one), just Alton Brown and Paula Deen and Iron Chef. And Barefoot Contessa. I'm such a junkie....I can't wait for Christmas so I can just park myself in front of Food Network and watch the Good Eats Marathon. Woohoo!!