Thanksgiving turkey dinners are truly an awesome experience! And best yet, turkey is loaded with a substance called tryptophan that chemically induces sleep, so when you eat turkey, it is mandatory to take a nap! Almost everyone does nap after the big Thanksgiving meal, except, of course, for those who do the kitchen cleanup. Cleaning up after such a large meal with all the trimmings takes time and lots of effort. At our house, that means no nap until round one of the cleanups is completed. Round one involves clearing the table of all the serving dishes and bowls, the dinner dishes, water glasses, wine glasses, and my eyeglasses, which always somehow seem to get smeared with gravy!
First, it’s scraping the dinner plates into the overstuffed garbage can, then the hunt for various containers to hold all the leftovers. We buy food containers regularly because they disappear into the freezers. Some get into the cold storage without a label telling you what’s in it, and when it was frozen. Unlabeled containers usually stay in for a year or so before being thrown out.
The sign that the cleanup round one has been completed is the familiar hum and sloshing of water from the overloaded dishwasher. Of course, by the time round one is done, people are hungry for all of the desserts. More plates come out of the cupboard: small pie plates, bowls for ice cream, cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and cookie plates. Don’t forget the cups, saucers, and mugs, the knife and forks, the napkins, the coffee, and the tea. Most family Thanksgiving dinners involve more than one dessert, so more plates are needed. Just as dessert time is getting over, the dishwasher is done. It’s time to burn your hands on the hot dishes and stuff to make room for round two’s dishwasher load. This load is usually filled with all kinds of pots and pans that were used to prepare the big dinner. They take up a lot of room. Running the dishwasher a second time still does not allow all the dessert plates, cups, and mugs to fit in the load; they will have to wait for cleanup round 3.
At this point, the cook, the few cleaners (everyone wants to eat, but few want to clean up afterwards), and all of the eaters desperately need a nap. The football game is blaring, the lights are on, and everyone is down, napping. I had to pull a “Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory” to get my “Comfy Chair!” as I booted out a relative from “My spot!”
After all the eating, napping, and cleaning, it was time for people to go home and, of course, take some of their favorite leftovers, but they never seem to take enough. The menu for the week is as follows: Thursday, Thanksgiving: Turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Friday: Warmed up turkey with all the trimmings. Saturday: hot turkey sandwiches with anything left over from the other two days. Sunday: Turkey Ala King! Monday: Leftover Turkey Ala King! Tuesday: Please, anything but turkey! Too much of a good thing! Leftovers are the “Ghosts” of Meals long past. They can be haunting!
Thus, the Holiday season is up and running, along with the dishwasher. I just love the Thanksgiving-to-New Year’s marathon. I love seeing family, sharing great meals, decorating for Christmas, buying and exchanging gifts, picking up all the tattered remains from the presents, and staying up late on New Year’s, usually way past my usual bedtime. Cleaning up after all of the meals, and then taking down all the decorations. Glad the “Holiday Season” is only once a year!
“Remember, every day is a gift! Some are just a little more fun to open than others. – Joel
Author of: “The Guinea Pig In The Freezer”. joelmvernier@aol.com
