You’ve heard of The Christmas Story movie? Well, this is Robin’s Thanksgiving Story.

Before Darrel died, when we realized he wasn’t going to be able to travel to Mexico where we have gone for the last dozen years or so, I asked my parents if they could be home in time for Thanksgiving. I wanted to fix dinner at our house with a few of the family. They changed their reservations to be home on Monday prior to the day.

Of course, Darrel didn’t make it that long but I still wanted to do it here since I hadn’t done Thanksgiving since my first marriage! We usually had it either at my parents, the Badgers, or a few times at my ‘other cousin’ Darryl’s house. I figured it wouldn’t bother me since Thanksgiving here wasn’t a tradition that Darrel and I shared, unlike Christmas.

I was pretty excited about cooking turkey dinner. Last Friday, I went to Costco and did most of the shopping. Came home and cleaned the fridge in the garage so I could put everything in there.

Last weekend I fixed a large pot of chicken stock for gravy, stuffing, etc. Put out bread to dry. Cleaned here and there around the house.

Monday I picked up the turkey and had it spatchcocked (look it up. A quicker way to cook a turkey and have more crispy skin.) I made the cranberry sauce. Cleaned the fridge in the house.

Tuesday I made the cornbread for the dressing. Decided to clean the oven and then the stove top. As I was cleaning the stove top I was noticing how dinged, scratched, and blackened parts of it were. I thought, Wow, it is 17 years old and looking it.

Wednesday I roasted the turkey backbone and neck in the oven. Dry brined the turkey. Made the ‘not your mama’s’ green bean casserole. Cleaned the Brussels sprouts and got them ready to cook.

I was in the back room and heard the stove beeping. I thought, what the heck!? I went in and looked and there was an F1 showing in the display. Uh, oh!

I googled it and saw that meant I needed a new control panel. Shiiiitttt!!!! I texted friend, Carl, who owns an appliance repair shop – Appliance Service Station (getting a plug in for you, Carl!)

As I was doing this, I seemed to recall that Carl had posted something last year about stupid people who clean their ovens the day before the big day of cooking. Ooops! Didn’t remember that in time, obviously.

He looked up the part and said it would cost $639 plus tax and told me I could buy one for not much more. He also said to try throwing the circuit breaker to ‘reboot’ the stove. Courtney did that and, low and behold, it seemed to work. I thanked Carl and went back to getting food ready.

About 5 minutes later, it started beeping again. Yikes! Courtney was just about ready to leave for work (2:30 PM – 11:00 PM) and my friend, Trish, had dropped something by. I was flustered and thinking, I could do the turkey on the BBQ or take it to the club. Trish quickly left seeing as how I was about ready to blow.

Courtney said if I bought a new stove, he could probably hook it up when he got home from work. I am getting more and more stressed by the minute.

Courtney left for work. I looked up stoves online. Ran to Lowes. Bought a stove. Helped load it into the truck. Came home and thought, Wow, that is too heavy for Courtney to get out of the truck by himself.

I called my friend, Bill Coleman, who got his grandson and came over within half an hour. They got it out of the truck and into the house. Whew! One crisis resolved.

I got the dressing prepped and ready. Fixed a bit to eat. Was exhausted and went to bed about 9:00 PM.

Did I mention that it is a gas stove? We also have a gas hot water heater, furnace, and fireplace. As I was trying to sleep, and not having any luck, it crossed my mind that when Courtney turned off the gas to install the new stove he would also have to start everything back up again.

I got up and wrote him a note to that effect. Then went back to bed with images of the house blowing up. Finally dozed off sometime around midnight. I had heard Courtney come in but knew if I got up I would never get to sleep.

I woke up in a sweat at 2:30 AM. Just minutes later Courtney peeked his head in and said, Mom?? I got up and he said he couldn’t get the hot water heater going and gas was pouring out. We went in and he read me the instructions which he said he had done. So, I told him to turn the gas off to the heater and we would worry about it later.

He said he had gotten the fireplace going but hadn’t started on the furnace yet. So, he worked on that and it was amazingly easy.

I went back to bed and again had visions of the house blowing up and thinking there would probably still be enough hot water for me to take a shower in the morning, and I could always heat water to wash all the dishes in the dishwasher before everyone got here. Finally got back to sleep though.

I woke up at 6:00 and went in to take my shower. Yep, hot water. Yay!

Then I decided I would probably use less hot water by using the dishwasher than doing them by hand. So, I started that. Then I cleaned up all the mess from the stove install.

When I went into the hot water heater room to get the vacuum, I smelled gas but could also tell the heater was on. I shut the door and hoped for the best.

Got the tables set up in the back room, decorated them, and put on the place settings.

Put the turkey in the oven. Yes, it worked! Got all the other fixings out and ready to cook. Turkey was done in 75 minutes! Let it rest for almost an hour. It turned out nice and moist and just about perfectly cooked.

People started showing up at 11:00 since we were eating at noon so Courtney could have some before going to work.

Made the potatoes, gravy, cooked the rest of the sides. Got everything on the table and ready to eat by about 12:02. What a relief.

Very thankful this Thanksgiving for a son that is as handy as his dad was. He even ended up going into the scary area under the house to put a new gas hose on at 1:00 AM!

I am also thankful for my friends and family who have been there for me the past 6 weeks!

Off to watch the Seahawks with the Wamsley’s now.

Hope everyone else has as great of a Thanksgiving as I did!