turkey fit for a king

yesterday, kevin and i hopped a plane to have thanksgiving #2 with his family in las vegas. as soon as we walked in the door, we could smell the turkey cooking in the oven! all day we just visited and prepared for the feast. kevin's step-grandmother gail was there with her dog dinky. it was nice to catch up with her too. we hadn't seen each other since the wedding almost 4 months ago.

kevin's parents got a wii with a bunch of games. kevin and i played the bowling--we got pretty competitive. we also tried the tennis but i couldn't figure out how to actually hit or serve the ball, so tennis didn't keep my interest too long. then we got into mario brothers. that was SO FUN! it took me right back to elementary age--sitting on the floor with my brothers fighting over whose turn it was or who was irritating me enough to make me mess up! :) we played that and got really into it. it's surprising how much i remembered about the original game. i'm going to have to get back into that game today!

anyway, back to the turkey...so as we were setting up the feast karen taught me a couple traditions that my husband takes very seriously. tradition #1: always, always, always have to garnish the turkey plate. in my family, we're lucky if the meat even makes it off the turkey before people start picking at it! tradition #2: the garnish must always have oranges. karen gave me the task of garnishing this plate. i think i looked at her like she was crazy at first--mind you, i am no martha stewart. so i learned...the lettuce must be placed in a ring around the edge of the plate, covered with grapes in areas. the oranges must be cut zig-zagged, peeled open, and topped with a marachino cherry. i must admit, it added a nice touch! once it was all said and done, the turkey platter looked fabulous! it did make it nice to have the decorations on the plate so that when the meat was nearly gone, the focus of the meal still looked beautiful.

the entire meal was delicious! especially the whole-berry cranberry sauce and the sweet potatoes complete with pecans and grated coconut! i also found out that like clos du bois pinot noir (usually not a red wine person), so that was exciting. we topped off the night with an almond-champagne cheers to dudley garvey, kevin's late grandfather and gail's late husband, and 4 kinds of desserts. it was definitely a meal fit for a king. and we had so much to be thankful for (including that our clothes still fit this morning!)...