Our 2022 Thanksgiving was everything that “remember the one year” stories are made of. In case things seem too perfect and shiny over here, this Thanksgiving was full of mishaps, sickness, and of course, two children who did not care for essentially anything that was served for Thanksgiving.

Harrison had been sick up until the day before Thanksgiving, and Nathan we thought was better with his fever breaking Tuesday night, but out of nowhere on Thanksgiving, had a 103* fever come roaring back for another 24 hours. Still, Nathan insisted that he was fully capable of smoking the turkey for Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving must go on!

We started our morning with our traditional biscuits and gravy during the parade/World Cup soccer viewing.

It was delicious. I loved it. The little boys didn’t touch it.

Then I proceeded to cook all of the sides for the day. Our menu for Thanksgiving this year:

• Rolls
• Roasted Balsamic Parmesan Brussel Sprouts (this recipe was amazing!)
• Gravy
• Irish noodles (recipe provided by my wonderful MIL)
• Creamy garlic mashed potatoes (also amazing!)
• Herby stuffing
• Smoked turkey with a bourbon citrus brine

You know what turned out amazing? Everything that I made, aside from the stuffing.

As Nathan took off the turkey, he informed me that he had made a few mistakes cooking the turkey given that he was delirious the whole day…including forgetting to inject the turkey, forgetting to put it on a roasting rack inside of the pan, putting any liquid in the bottom of the pan…then during the cooking, forgetting to rotate the turkey so it cooked unevenly, to finally as he pulled it out realizing for the first time that he had cooked the entire bird upside down. We ate a portion of the turkey from the area we knew for sure was completely cooked, and the rest of the turkey went straight into the trash at the end of the night.

You know who ate Thanksgiving dinner? Me, and me alone. The boys ate a roll, and Nathan pushed the food around his plate and told me the brussels were good.

It was one for the memory books. There’s nothing more traditional than a sick kids/(husband) on the holidays. And boy, did we get that in spades this year.

Here’s our very tired, beleaguered crew for our traditional Thanksgiving day picture…