Holiday Disaster or Great Story in the Making?

Got the call around 10am a week ago Monday, "Betts, you're not going to believe this. In my effort to 'fit' in Thanksgiving, I lost a week and defrosted my turkey this past weekend. Help!"

Laura, a childhood friend, is used to planning life out by the quarter and the year due to the demands of her design business. With nuclear family spread out in three states and constant travel to keep up with everyone, it's easy to understand how uber-organization could seemingly turn into disaster. Thanksgiving is happening today with said turkey. We talked through the steps of roasting a quick and amazing Two Hour Turkey, as well as how to carve, plate, freeze and defrost the beast a week later. I'm sure they're kvelling this minute over the moist meat, given it's prolonged bath in stock.

Plan in place and nerves under control ("This actually sounds better because I won't have to deal with a greasy pan next week."), I reminded Laura of my family's best Thanksgiving "disaster" exactly nine years ago. We had the triple threat - a new house, in a new town, and a newborn - and family wanted to "give us a break" for the holiday and descend upon us ("It'll be easier to get tickets to the new Harry Potter movie!"). We also discovered our oven could not even hold a cake pan, let alone a turkey. Plan B was to borrow ovens of neighbors who were away for the day. Suffice to say, a few whirls around the neighborhood with a slathered bird on my lap and we were back home with a raw one. Plan C was to use the grill. Now newborn is screaming to be fed, so I threw the remainder of the flavorful paste on the bird and ran to my feeding post. My husband was now in charge of turkey duties.

Fast forward one hour. Gentle knock on the door, "Um, Betsey, we have a ... small...problem. Turkey caught on fire and uh, the siding's melted off the house." "Is everyone okay," I asked. "Yes, lots of yelling, lots of pictures and they're getting hungry." "Great, well at least we'll have a great story to tell about this Thanksgiving."

I'll spare you the details of the next few hours. Let's just say everyone enjoyed the meal to remember and we got the kitchen renovation we had wanted. And the kids have one more wonderful story to tell every year at Thanksgiving.

Enjoy a peaceful and bountiful life, filled with laughter.