Black Friday

I had a terrible week at work with stupid foot pain.  For some reason, it hurt if I had anything touching my foot, so wearing a sock and shoe was miserable. I wasn't sleeping much at night and the pain was the non-stop, annoying kind that made me incredibly irritable and impatient.  Fortunately, Thursday was Thanksgiving Day and a short day where 5 keepers go in and do 3 hours worth of feeding, watering, medicating and basic cleaning.  We were in at 6:45am and I was home by 10am.  The great thing about working holidays is that I am wide awake and ready to take on the entire day, but suddenly get to go home and have the rest of the day off still early in the morning.

My bad week took a sudden turn for the much better.  I would probably never buy a turkey, but I get a free one from work.  Usually I donate the bird, but this year I decided to make the whole Thanksgiving feast for my family. I've made a few turkeys before, but this was the first time I actually remembered to remove both the neck and the giblets before cooking.  This was also the first time I basted the bird rather than using one of those plastic bags and I must say that it turned out fantastic.  The white meat is tender and juicy and the legs were falling off the bird when it was finished.  I also made real mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie (made by Kaylin.)  We also had Stove Top Stuffing because the kids won't touch it anyway and jarred gravy because the one time I made real gravy from drippings it made me gag and I couldn't eat it.  (Everybody else liked it, so it tasted fine, it was the gross process that got to me...  I love that I scoop poop for a living but can't handle making gravy.  Such is life.)  Anyway, it turned out to be a really relaxing day hanging out with Gene and the kids.  It was exactly what I needed.  Everyone enjoyed the feast and Kaylin's pie was excellent.

Today we're hanging out together at home.  Everyone got to sleep in and I even slept almost 8 full hours in my bed.  That feels like a record.  I then hung out all early morning watching TV in my recliner while both dogs and both cats took turns sleeping with me.  At one point both dogs had Princess sandwiched between them and we dozed like that for a good half hour until Scout couldn't take it anymore and chased Princess off.  I escaped their altercation with no injuries, but they've been having a standoff with much barking and hissing for the past several hours.  Gage plunks down like a bag of sand and sleeps through everyone stepping on him or trying to shove him off.  Tiger is bigger than the other pets so he just stands his ground like a brick wall and everyone eventually leaves him alone. They keep the peace by their indifference :)

Gene and Logan might go to the driving range later, but I think I'll just hang out and rest.  I'm definitely not going shopping anywhere except maybe Kroger.  I think we'll have a day of leftovers and pets and video games and relaxation.  I'm going to try to keep off my feet and keep calm.  I can't believe it's almost December and almost the end of the year.  This year is just flying by!