Turkey-Lurkey

Dad and Taylor dressed the turkeys (which means they pulled the gizzards out and plopped the turkey into a bag in the roaster). They did a good job! But they didn't make it dance this year :)

When all the food was ready, it was laid out in a FANTASTIC display (from right to left): cream cheese corn, stuffing, gravy,  (wine and martinelli's), green beans, turkey, mashed potatoes, more turkey, baked spinach puff, scalloped sweet potatoes, and two kinds of salads. Mmm!A proper Hobbit feast, if I do say so myself!  Recipes coming soon. 

All in all, we had 23 people for dinner--the Black family, Aunt Sandy, Uncle Mark (and family and mother-in-law), Mum's parents, and Mr & Mrs Corrigan.  

Pie for dessert, of course :) (6 pumpkin, 2 apple (well, we are in WA!), 2 pecan tarts ("just the top part" of a pecan pie) :D and 2 key lime pies) along with Mum's hot wassail--apple cider, orange juice, lemon or lime aid, cinnamon sticks and whole cloves. Simmer until tasty :)

Also, Mike and Kayleen came over after dinner to spend some time with us. They are expecting a little girl (Louisa) in a few months. It was good to catch up with them--and rub the belly, naturally! 

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As a treat for everyone, we played paper charades (a game the Black's got from one of Dad's cousins) after dessert. It was lots of fun! 

What you need:

I'd say at least 6 people (at least two teams)

2-4 strips of paper per player (the more strips, the longer the rounds)

2 bowls/containers to hold the papers

Here are the rules:

1) Every player write a person, place, or thing on their strips of paper (adjectives and adverbs ought, generally, to be avoided (aHEM, Garrett and Taylor)). 

2) Fold the strips of paper and place them all in one bowl.

3) Timing is variable--you can do 30 second turns or 1-minute turns where the actor can do as many slips of paper as he can.

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First round:

1) A player from one team selects a piece of paper from the bowl and tries to get his team to guess what's on the paper without saying ANY of the words on the paper. Once the team guesses the answer, the actor places the paper in the second bowl (each guessed word counts as one point).

2) Alternating teams, continue with the above procedure until all the slips of paper in the first bowl are gone.

Second round:

1) Using the SAME strips of paper, for this round the actor can only use ONE WORD to get his team to guess the answer (Just so you know, "blue" for "whale" is probably not a good choice). By this round, everyone (if they have been LISTENING) should be familiar with all the words on the strips of paper. Dad says, "Spend the time in your turn thinking of the word, because you can't take it back or change it!"

When the team guesses the word, place the strip of paper in the now-empty first bowl.

2) Repeat until all the strips of paper in the second bowl are back in the first bowl.

Third round:

1) Traditional Charades--actions only; no words or sound effects (or lip-reading, T!)--using the SAME strips of paper. This is a particularly funny round because the words are familiar, but the actions vary quite a bit depending on the actor's interpretation :) Like the first round, when the team guesses the word, place the strip of paper in the second bowl.

2) Repeat until all the strips of paper are gone.

Total the points for the rounds to see who's won :) This is also a great game for moments of insight--T should write a paper on this game and how the actor must lead the guessers to the further pertinent questions ;)

Here's a link to my other pictures of Turkey Day: 

Thanksgiving Day 08