Trains?

 Excuse the mess. We were rearranging furniture to put the tree up (Emily built it in under 3 minutes!). That chair is broken (unfixable) and headed to the dump on Wednesday when they are open next. It was in Gregs area. We put the other recliner from the set in his room and the other chair went into my master bedroom where Ollie has claimed it as his. Now my living area is less cluttered with chairs! 

I mentioned I wanted the train out this year as it has been a while since we have had it under the tree. After I pointed out the box with the train stuff in it, Emily got to work. It was Bear's first time seeing the train and he got good and nosing it off the track,but she was training him with treats to leave it alone. He is afraid of anything 'new' so it was fun to see his reaction.  He was exhausted after all the train play with the kids and snoozed hard last night after we turned it off. 

I made the mistake of taking out my 9.6 pound turkey out of the zero freezer (hubbys idea and I wasn't thinking!) last Thursday. Yup, was defrosted fully by Sunday night and needed to be cooked! Sigh. After Emily's annual physical Monday after I got done work, (4PMish) I cooked an unstuffed bird (well, parsley, onion and rosemary were inside) Monday night with mashed potato and stuffing. I was lazy and didn't do gravy for the meal and used one I bought at Sams, a Kinders Turkey gravy. Yuck! I made gravy after with the turkey drippings for open turkey sandwiches for lunch today. I tossed the other carton of the gravy. No one liked it. So, I did get another 10 pound bird (Publix had them 49 cents a pound so $5 for a 10 pound turkey!) that I took out of the freezer Monday night and should be perfect for cooking on Thursday! 

I seal a mealed the legs and one thigh as one packet for the freezer and another packet of the carcass for soup making later, also in the freezer. The second breast was held for lunches today with the last wing. Any leftovers will get sealed this afternoon. Much cheaper for Turkey

 breast this way!