Good Bye Dallas, Hello Kansas City (In 8 hours)

The Albarrans, Thanksgiving, 2015

We are up early, of course, because we are hoping to drive to Kansas City today to visit our son Tom and his family.  At the moment, however, the weather looks bad, flood warnings here in Dallas, lots of rain on the way north, and icy roads around Kansas City.  Not much fun.  We are going to wait another hour or so, for daylight, to see how bad the flooding is around here before deciding if it's a go.

The guys slept in Thanksgiving morning, having gotten home at 2:30 a.m. from the previous night's concert.  Glad we did not  stay for it.  We had a slap dash breakfast, some croissants from Trader Joe's, granola, lots of coffee, and eggs and sausage later for Tyler and me.  We sat around watching some HGTV shows, talked about what we needed to do for dinner (not much till later) and I then took Cody for a long walk, past numerous signs in front of homes announcing the fact that there son or daughter was playing for the local high school team.  If not that, then a banner announcing the Alma mater of the parents, Texas predominating of course, with a few Baylor's and Oklahoma's thrown in for good measure.  Late morning, Mitch finished up a couple of his college essays, with help from his dad, so he really caught up with most of his applications.

Making A Couple of Breads And A Mess

Tyler woke wanting to make a couple of different breads in between a run in the neighborhood.  He started with a cranberry bread, making a mess in the kitchen like his Granny but it's great to see him excited about bread making.  So the kitchen till about 1:30 was chaos, Tyler making his two breads, Evie forming and baking her cloverleaf rolls, Beth making a green bean casserole, getting the appetizers ready, and Ramiro shooting the turkey full of salad dressing, often missing and hitting the floor.  O, yea, Marisa hung around, chopping cranberries for Tyler's bread, helping Granny with the rolls and potatoes.  And in between, some of us watched the football game, though it was more background than a major focus.  By 2:00, all was ready for the big meal, so it was time to relax with a beer, some appetizers, two cheeses, and spankopita's from, where else, Trader Joe's.

Tyler Slicing The Cranberry Bread Which He Has Been Making Since First Grade

The Boys And Their Turkey

Making Cloverleaf Rolls

But it's never over, things are never ready.  After some appetizers and watching the Cowboys get killed by the Panthers, Rami dropped the turkey into the hot boiling oil and the rest of us worked in the kitchen, getting things ready for Thanksgiving dinner, with a glass of wine thankfully.  We decided to eat earlier than usual, around 5:00, so the turkey came out on time for once, just before 5:00.  Evie pulled the rolls out of the oven, Marisa mashed the potatoes, and Beth got the stuffing and beans ready.  The turkey seemed done to perfection even though according the the thermometer, we over cooked it.  Rami carved the turkey, with help from his sons, and we were ready to eat.  Dinner as always was way too much, just as it should be.  We stuffed ourselves with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green beans and rolls until we did not want pumpkin pie (until later).

Finally, A Turkey Dinner

By 7:30, we had the dishes done, the kitchen cleaned up, and everyone was off somewhere doing their thing I guess.  Evie and I got packed, so we could leave early tomorrow morning.  It was raining fairly hard, however, making it difficult to get the car packed last night.  We managed, with help to get most of our stuff in despite the high water along the curb.

We ended up watching the Westminster Dog Show as a family and having our pie later in the evening, with Reddi Whip of course, and all we happy, the end to a great day, a great week actually.