Monday, February 13, 2012

Laughing at myself - and turkey

I had a small get together last night. We'd missed Grandma Ebert's 80th birthday party a couple of weeks ago due to a HUGE snow storm. As important as she is to us, we wanted to celebrate her milestone and let her know that we care. So we invited her down for dinner.

Usually my dinner parties go smooth as butter. I'm a planner not a procrastinator you see. So I made the pies, banana and chocolate cream, the day before. I perfected the roll recipe I wanted to use the week before so that the rolls turned out no-stress prefect. I even thawed the turkey on Thursday so it would be ready for Sunday.

Unfortunately for my dinner guests and my four staaaaarving children, the turkey was not done on time. Ahalf hour went by and we were still waiting for a proper temperature. I'm pleased to say the tears did not fall. These things happen. What was important was spending time with Grandma. I invited everyone to the carefully set table and we ate everything else prepared for dinner including a lovely green salad, mashed potatoes and gravy and strawberry Jello.

We cleared the dishes and we enjoyed Grandma telling stories about growing up without electricity and listening to President Heber J. Grant during General Conferences. I asked her what stood out most in her mind over the last 80 years. She said the biggest miracle she's heard of was the surgery where they can take a person's heart out, fix it, put it back, and have it work. She said the worst invention was the TV.

After Colkie asked if they had pencils when she was a kid, we sang happy birthday and watched her blow out her birthday candles set in a decadent chocolate cream pie.

We played cards for a while and just enjoyed the evening. In the middle of our second game of Skip-Bo I checked the turkey. "Turkey's ready," I called. Within seconds I had a line of people ready to make warm turkey sandwiches. It was juicy and delicious.

"I don't think I've ever had turkey for dessert," said Grandma.

"Well I'm glad we've made your party unique and memorable." I smiled. It's not easy to come up with something new for an 80 year-old.

No comments: