Thanksgiving Monday

Mom Olympics

A brief diary entry as we get into the nitty gritty of the Mom Olympics:

Life moves at the speed of light now, so there is no such thing as an empty day to prepare for the big feast ahead. Life with very little kids was harder in a lot of ways but I miss the days empty of activities and resplendent with afternoon naps. I miss the slower pace, even though I was bored out of my mind a lot of the time. We were home a lot more when they were little.

Deep breath: What can be done Thanksgiving Monday to prepare for the big feast ahead?

Anything I clean now and most things I organize will be completely messed up again by the time Thursday comes around, so all of that has to wait until the last minute. 

I’m working with fewer days available this week than usual, as my oldest inexplicably scheduled his driving test tomorrow. I had to find both proof of insurance and registration slips for the car, as well as relinquish most of my Tuesday to facilitate taking him to his test and sitting at the DMV to wait for him. Other than that, Monday is just the usual routine with five alternatively-schooled children. Everyone needs to be dropped off/picked up 86 times for class, violin, orchestra, choir. If you really want to know what alternative education is like for the mother-of-many, it’s mostly driving. You’re a chauffeur. 

I love our small town though and most of my weekly driving trips for the kids are 5-10 minutes. There is no traffic, and abundant natural beauty. For a relatively low-population, rural area of California, we have a lot of overly qualified teachers, musicians, and coaches right in town, simply because this is a pleasant place to live with some very large urban areas nearby. 

Today’s school and education schedule was 6:30am violin lessons for two of the boys, dropping off the high schooler at 7:45, picking up three cousins and taking four of my own to private tutoring at 9, and then home for a bit before taking three kids back to violin and orchestra at 4:00pm, and the oldest at 5:30. Pause for dinner at my mom’s house before three adults and two high schoolers go back to choir practice, and you’ve got yourself a full day.

My mom watches my younger sons and my sister’s three girls while the adults are at rehearsal. The season leading up to Christmas is very busy with extra rehearsals and practices until we get through the big Christmas concert and then everything calms down. In some ways this nutso schedule is fitting for Advent. We aren’t quiet and contemplative, but we are preparing for the big feast nonetheless, and the start of actual Christmas coincides with when the preparations are finally over, the work and school schedule pauses, and we can relax and enjoy our home together.

But Christmas isn’t for weeks yet.

I did procure a round of sourdough bread from my mom and in-between drives I cut it into tiny squares for stuffing and threw it all into a bag in the freezer. I also stripped the two chicken carcasses from last Thursday’s dinner and made an enormous amount of chicken broth. Each of my five kids has decided what he would like to contribute to the feast, and the two little boys want to make the cranberry cookies from Cranberry Christmas, one of my favorite books from my childhood. Tuesday is the best day for make-ahead baking projects. However, Tuesday I will be at the DMV. Perhaps cookies that evening with the two little boys?

I am hosting only my family for Thanksgiving dinner this year, but many uncles and cousins will stop by midday for post-football beers and apps, and I need to bring several pies to my brother’s house for our great post-feast jam session. The extended family on my side gets together to sing and teach the kids how to play and sing in a band, with multiple guitars and bass, keyboard, drums, and sound boards and amps and mics. I haven’t added my requests to the spreadsheet of songs we are supposed to practice before Thursday. But there is still a little time. Perhaps tonight after choir rehearsals. 

Do I want to try to make everyone learn Lord Huron or should we just stick to old reliables: Beatles, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, and the Cranberries? Definitely Starship’s We Built This City and The Outfield’s Your Love are going in the request line this year.

Things to do on the Monday before Thanksgiving: get ahead on laundry, make broth, assemble menu, delegate tasks to kids, go to the grocery store. When I was younger I used to have to take out all recipe cards and make lists, and do one giant trip to the grocery store; now I’ve been doing the same thing for so long, plus we have all the meat and most of the goods already in our deep freezer/panty, I barely need to get anything today. There’s no pressure to remember it all, anyway: the six gallons of milk I bought won’t last us through Thursday. I’ll be back.

why does this turkey seem so emo

One tip for the Matriarchs: It’s a good idea to think through this week’s ordinary meals ahead of time. Make some one-pot chilis or soups for lunch and, while at the store, get things for 2-3 different dinners so you don’t make your family starve until Thursday. A huge breakfast pudding like the pumpkin buttermilk pudding found in Joy of Cooking can serve as breakfast for most of the week.

I usually intuit my way through the grocery store, listless in more ways than one, and pick up meat or fruit and veg that is one sale. Dinners this week will be beef tacos, roasted pork loin and apples, and chili. 

Spinach dip and fruit/cheese/nut platters for the football crew have to be assembled on Wednesday. Pies and cranberries and cutting up all the vegetables for stuffing and sides happens Wednesday, too. Actually when I think of Wednesday, I become faint. But, there is a lot of time between now and then. 

48 hours, a DMV test, and at least and five or six gallons of milk…