Thanksgiving 2022

Constance had been taking cooking lessons from Angela for a while now. Constance really liked when Kate was able to join them. Kate loved cooking almost as much as Angela did. When they finished their cooking lesson, they had an art lesson and Constance became the teacher and Angela and Kate were two of her students. MJ, AJ and Lilly liked to participate in the art lessons but not the cooking lessons.

Constance had all of them drawing pictures of turkeys. Kate decided she wanted to make a turkey out of her hand outline like she had seen her fellow classmates do. Constance loved her creativity. She attempted to draw a family of hand turkeys. She asked Constance if she could use her hand outline to make her mommies.

She made sure to make her mama's outline using Constance's left hand as her mama was left-handed. She used her right hand to make her mommy because her mommy was right-handed. She asked MJ, AJ and Lilly to provide their hand so she could trace it. She let her brothers and sister decorate their own hand to add to the family picture, that way the drawing would be from all of them. She was learning to share and after thinking about it, she wanted this present to be from all of them.

She wanted to give her turkey hand drawing to her mommies on Thanksgiving. She took the time to color and enhance each of the hand outlines. She wanted her mommies to be proud of their drawing and possibly place it on the refrigerator. Their drawing was rather large but Kate didn't care, she knew her mommies would love it because it was a gift from their children.

On Thanksgiving morning, Constance went into Kate's bedroom to wake her up. She couldn't believe that Kate still had the police officer car bed that Jane and Maura had bought for MJ when he was old enough for a big boy bed. When MJ moved into his own room a few years ago, Kate asked him if she could keep the bed. MJ agreed and let her keep it. He had loved it but he had a feeling Kate wanted that connection to her mama so he agreed. She had one of Maura's favorite blankets that she slept with each night. So, between the bed and the blanket she had something that was special to both of her mommies.

Kate was a little cranky when Constance woke her up, but then she remembered it was Thanksgiving and they had a special meal to prepare for their family. She smiled at her grand mére and asked if she could carry her. Constance gladly picked her up and carried her to the bathroom so she could freshen up.

She had her clothes already picked out but didn't want to change into them yet as she didn't want to get them dirty so she stayed in her pajamas and they went downstairs. Angela was already in the kitchen with her apron on. She handed Constance and Kate their aprons and they got started. Angela had brought out Kate's step stool so she could stand on it as she helped them.

Angela let Kate pull the innards from the turkey. Kate said, "Nonna, they are slimy."

"Yes, Kate, they are, please just put them in the bowl in the sink and I will take care of them. We have to rinse out the turkey and get it ready." Once Kate had finished that. Angela moved Kate over to the island where she could start carefully peeling potatoes for the mashed potatoes. Kate was having so much fun working with her grandmas.

Jane came down to get a cup of coffee and sat with Kate while she peeled the potatoes. Angela was getting ready to inject the turkey and Kate asked if she could help. "Nonna, can I help you inject the turkey?"

"Of course, baby, come over her and I will show you where to inject him." Angela showed her where to inject the turkey and Kate used the syringe to inject the flavored sauce into the turkey. They had about twelve injections to make and Kate performed all of the injections. She was so proud of herself.

Jane went back upstairs with a cup of coffee for her wife. She sat on the side of the bed and handed Maura a cup of coffee. Maura sat up and took the cup of coffee from Jane and gave her a kiss. After a few sips of coffee, she put the coffee cup down and Jane climbed back in bed with her.

They made out for a little while and then Jane said, "Maur, it's quite the production down there. Kate is in her element with her grandmothers. She is having so much fun helping cook our Thanksgiving meal."

"Jane, love, do you fancy taking a nice long shower with me?" Maura asked with a seductive look on her face. Jane didn't have to be asked twice. They climbed out of bed and walk hand-in-hand into the master bathroom. Their alarm was set to go off an hour later so they could get up and start getting ready for company. Angela said she would cook pancakes so they didn't have to worry about breakfast and the children as there were two grandmothers downstairs that love doting on their grandbabies.

When they arrived downstairs, they saw all four children enjoying bunny pancakes and wildly chatting with their grandmothers. Angela and Constance were working on side dishes as they had put the turkey in the oven over an hour ago. Kate was on what she said was her breakfast break. She would go back to helping out once she finished eating her breakfast.

After Kate had finished changing her clothes, all the children gathered in the media room in front of the big screen television so that they could watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade at 9 AM. Arthur had just arrived and had gone down with them as he enjoyed watching the parade each year. You never knew which floats and flying balloons would be on display.

Jane and Maura went down to watch the parade around 9:30 after checking in on their mother's. They wanted to make sure their mothers were not over doing things. Angela and Constance had things under control and had told them to go enjoy their time with their children.

During a commercial break Lilly said, "Did you know that the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was in 1924 and the first giant balloon was Felix the Cat and he was flown for the first time in 1927?" Nobody in the room knew that and she told additional fun facts until the commercials ended and then spent every commercial break sharing her knowledge of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Maura was so proud of her daughter. She normally administered the fun facts and she was happy that one of the children had picked up this habit. She had watched the hour long special, 'Countdown to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade' with Lilly the night before. Lilly loved spouting off facts just like her mommy. She was constantly researching things on the internet. Jane just knew that there were two beautiful google-mouth ladies in the house.

MJ really liked the marching bands. He loved how coordinated the bands were. Kate didn't like the clowns and she hid behind MJ when the clowns appeared. "MJ please let me know when the clowns are gone."

"I will Kate." MJ informed his little sister. When MJ told her they were gone she climbed out of her chair and went over and to where her grand pére was and climbed up in his lap and that is where she spent the rest of her time while she watched the parade. Arthur loved it. He enjoyed his grandchildren so much.

When the parade was over Kate went back upstairs to check on her grandmothers and to see if there was anything else she needed to be doing. They were putting the sides that they had prepared earlier in the oven. Timing is everything and Angela had perfected her timing at having everything ready when it was time to eat.

Frankie and Tommy and their families were due to arrive after the parade. Kate walked around to make sure the tables were all set up correctly. She had helped set them up earlier but some of her cousins had been in the room unattended and she knew how they liked to mess with things because she did it with them. Today though she was one of the people in charge of the meal and she didn't want any little kids messing with the table decorations.

Angela announced that dinner was ready. They paused the football game and everybody came upstairs to eat. They started their meal with a prayer led by Arthur and then went around the table to say what they were thankful for. Angela had started and Kate was the last to speak before everybody loaded their plates up. Kate said that she was thankful that her grandmothers let her help prepare the meal today and that she hoped she would be able to continue to help prepare their Thanksgiving meal.

TJ had gathered all the children together and asked that they each grab five olives. After everybody had finished saying what they are thankful for, they all placed the olives on the fingers of one of their hands. When TJ gave the signal and they all put their hand up in the air to show everyone their olive clad hand and then they proceeded to eat them with a huge smile on their face. TJ had the largest smile because he got all seven of his cousins to follow him in this little show of unity. Everybody at the tables just laughed. Leave it to the children to do something so silly.

Jane and Maura were so pleased with their children, well except for the little olive incident. MJ and AJ had led all of their cousins downstairs and entertained them with games while dinner was still cooking. Lilly had provided her fun facts during the commercials of the parade and Kate had assisted her grandmothers in cooking their meal.

After dinner all four children gathered around Jane and Maura and MJ presented them with the hand turkey picture that they had made for them. Jane and Maura loved it and after thanking the children with hugs and kisses Maura moved pictures around on the refrigerator to make room for the family picture.

Kate told them that they used their own hands and that they used Constance's hand for Jane and Maura's hands. Kate made sure to inform them, "Mama, I made sure to use grand mére's left hand for you because you are left-handed. We used her right hand for you mommy because you are right-handed."

They had some dessert and then almost everybody went downstairs to watch football on the big screen television. Occasionally people came back up to help themselves to leftovers. Everybody seemed to enjoy another Thanksgiving dinner together.