So much to be Thankful for.

Two of helpers this year. They may need fireman gear

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving my youngest sons favorite holiday. I've commonly refered to it as a holiday designed by men who hated women. I mean who wouldn't love a day off from work to cook and clean, and then cook and clean some more. Don't miss understand,I love all holidays, but having spent most of my early married years away from home and family it felt like a day of triple duty. The main reason may be because I lived through three oven fires on Thanksgiving.


Thankfully the year of fire number one, I had a generous neighbor who felt pity on me.and let me finish my turkey in her oven. That year my Mother and Grandmother who had flown in to visit us in Michigan. It was also the year I learned the fine art of cooking all of the side dishes on a charcoal grill outside in the freezing cold. My Grandmother who had lived poor ,and hard in the hills of Kentucky never missed a beat. She took control each dish at a time. We talked and talked about a million things as we cooked and "made do" and put Thanksgiving dinner on the table.

without actual pictures I thought this might look like a fire

 Fire number two happened the very next year. My Grandmother was there with us again,Thankfully. even better was that it only blew out my oven, I still had the range top. So that was the year I learned to finish cooking a turkey on two burners, as well as all the side dishes.

On the third fire which was many years later.....you would think we would have learned to eat out, wouldn't you. But on the third fire my whole family had come to our new house in Indiana.I was up very early and my Mom was keeping me company when it started. It was much worse then any I'd had before, so I of course lost complete control, and screamed "Mom get out of here".
Then like a totally frantic hostess with a house full of people ,I grabbed the canister of flour and threw it in the oven. Believe me that is not what you want to do, the flour blew up all over me, and my pajamas. So I now looked like a crazed hostess, with a house full of people. At this point I hollered up the stairs to my husband "the ovens on fire". My first husband was a man who normally was very slow and difficult to wake up,especially this early and on a day off.
Well from a dead sleep, he shot down those stairs, and into the kitchen completely dressed in a matter of nano seconds.

By now my whole family was up and had run down to see what all of the commotion was about. My always calm under pressure Mother never left the kitchen as I had asked. No, she quietly walked over to the oven and put out the fire. My brother who was now standing half dressed in my kitchen looked at my husband and said "wow I'm impressed, I've never seen you get up and move so fast this early". My husband responded, I've had a lot of experience with Thanksgiving oven fires. I wish I had a picture of how they all looked. Even better might have been a picture of how I looked.

At this point we all burst into laughter.


Yes it's my favorite holiday too, and though I don't ever want another oven fire, I do miss those years. What seemed like the worst moments at the time, turns out to be the moments you remember and miss the most.

Giving Thanks!

Being with family.....there's just so much to be Thankful for. Especially for new kitchen appliances and no more second hand!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.