My first turkey

Saturday I cooked my first turkey all by myself. I have helped mom cook a turkey in the past, but this year, other than having her give me suggestions, I cooked the turkey and made the dressing.

And the turkey came out well. I was pleased. The only problem was that I didn't start the process until after 2 pm and therefore it was not ready to eat until 9:30 pm. For me, that is not too late for supper. For mom, as she had eaten part of her supper earlier, she had some turkey, etc. for the rest of her supper. For my brother, he didn't have any turkey as he ate his entire supper earlier.

In addition to cooking a 13.5 lb turkey and making dressing, I opened a can of sweet potatoes. I had my hands full and did not cook potatoes and other traditional accompanying dishes.

Now... why did I cook a turkey now? Because I'm never at my mother's place over Thanksgiving, our tradition is to have the "Thanksgiving turkey" on New Year's Day. Because Mom was in Manor Care rehab over New Years, we didn't have the turkey she and my brother had gotten and stored in the freezer. Now that it was the weekend, and none of the nurses and therapists from Home Health would be visiting, and the contractor was (except for one thing) done, now was a quiet time to make the turkey. And it would be nice for mom to have a special meal after eating Manor Care's meals for months.

In addition to making a turkey dinner on Saturday, I:

• shoveled the snow off the sidewalk in front of mom's house
• fixed the handle on the toilet
• washed clothes and bedding
• made rice crispie bars
• washed the pots and pans that didn't fit in the dishwasher
• helped mom
  
• And other odds and ends

By the time I got mom into bed that night I was very tired. So much for taking it easy on a Saturday.