Wild Turkey | Susan Spess Shay

I think I mentioned we were doing the turkey thing on Thursday AND Friday. We did. And we did our best to get rid of all the food before it could turn into leftovers. 😉

Why is it everything tastes better on Thanksgiving?

Anyway, we went to Dad’s on Thursday, where we ate in the garage. We really aren’t that bad (most of us are very nearly house broken) but we usually eat out there when we’re at his house. The fact that there was thirty or forty of us and his kitchen area is fairly small and the dining area even smaller might have something to do with it.

We visited with relatives, in-laws and outlaws and people we only see every year or so on Thanksgiving. Talk about a great time! The kids were a delight. The adults fun and entertaining.

About the time we finished eating, Sister Cindy and her husband came. (Sister Cin had to work, but she made it to the garage as soon as possible.) 😉

Someone told a joke on Thanksgiving.

A waitress walked up to a man in a restaurant. He looked at her name tag and grinned. “Debbie, huh? Cute,” he said. “What’s the other one’s name?”

That’s the punch line. The end of the joke. My sweet nephew, a senior in high school answered, “Susan.”

I’m still trying to figure out why anyone would name their shoulders.

Late in the day, our niece and her husband came and brought their two. None of us can stay away from the sweet babies.

Isn’t she adorable?

They didn’t stay nearly long enough, but at least we got to spend a little time with them.

Only one of my kiddos and his wife were able to make it for garage dining, so the next day, I got up and started baking and cooking for the other two boys and their women.

Grandma Reeves Blue Ribbon Hot Rolls.

Sadly, these wouldn’t have won a ribbon. Even when they were straight out of the oven, when I tested one to see if it would poison us (it didn’t) it didn’t taste the same as Grandma’s did back in the day.

I’m not sure if it’s the yeast (Grandma used cake) or the locality (Grandma lived at Park Hill, near Tahlequah) or maybe the hands (Grandma made them for every get together) but they just weren’t quite right. Definitely, they needed more salt.

I wonder where I can buy cake yeast?

This is my dining room table. It’s not in the garage because our garage is full of cars and tools and silly stuff like that. It looks kind of empty in this picture, but when the food was ready, it got full really fast.

I have a few turkeys that I set around at Thanksgiving to remind me of Mama. No, she wasn’t a turkey. (You really didn’t think that, did you?) She had a bunch of turkeys she set around to celebrate the season.