Cleaned

I did it.

I made a turkey and a half.

And it was yummy.

I cooked a little too much food...

okay, I cooked way too much food.

I was sending people home with entire second meals.

And our fridge is still full to the brim with left overs.

For breakfast I had a dinner roll turkey sandwich and a piece of apple pie.

I tried some with Eva, but she opted for cereal.

The last bit of the dirty dishes are in the dishwasher...

and my slow cooker is making broth as I type.

This year there was a changing of the guard so to speak.

Not just with the cooking...

I now am the keeper of the Turkey Plate.

I remember it sitting on my grandma's table.

It was "ugly as sin" she would say each year...

but Grandpa bought it for her.

He had accidentally broke her china platter one year during the clean-up.

He ran out to buy her a new one the day after Thanksgiving.

This platter is what he came home with...

and so it became the "Ugly Turkey Plate."

The grandkids were allowed to carry it and dry it off.

Grandma hoped it would break and she would get a prettier one.

One without a creepy turkey that stared at her.

One that matched her china.

It never broke.

Over the years, the word ugly was lost.

It really wasn't that ugly and I think Grandma secretly loved it.

When Grandma died, Grandpa got rid of most of the dishes.

He ate out almost every meal and said they were dust collectors.

But he kept the turkey plate.

He gave it to my mom one year.

I didn't understand why it made her cry then, but I do now.

It is worn and and chipped.

Some of the glaze is gone of on the raised parts of turkey's body.

Years of scrapping and carving.

Now it is mine.

When I sent Michael out to the car to bring it in yesterday he said,

"You aren't really going to use that ugly plate, are you?"

He knew it was my grandma's and now my mom's....

but didn't know the whole story of the turkey plate.

It was perfect.