Thanksgiving 2013 - Pork is a Nice Sweet Meat

I'm writing to you all as I sit warm by the fire.  Abby isn't far and as per her usual self; she is dramatically exhausted.  The weather in the Dallas area is 25 degrees and has been sleeting all night.  I've got some fantastic pictures to share of our "Ice-pacolypse" in my next post so standby folks!

Today, I'd like to update you all on our Thanksgiving break!  It was quite an adventure and came with a lot of new experiences for me.

We spent our break at the lake where most of our good stories originate, of course.  I got to see a neighbor clean an 8 point deer he'd recently shot.  I've never seen a deer "cleaned" before, so naturally, I took pictures of the experience to share with you guys.

Left: The deer is mounted on a special truck apparatus and was skinned from top to bottom.  I didn't realize the skin separated so easily but that could be the use of a very sharp knife.  You can't see it in the picture but the deer was so fresh that steam was rising off his body.

Top Left: Working on the head portion.

Top Right: The heart of Bambie.  I wont lie, watching them clean the deer was difficult to do but I also know that they wont waste a single part of the animal.  The heart was such a complicated looking organ and I couldn't help but wonder if it was around the same size as a human heart.

Bottom Left: Uncle Tony sawing the skinned deer into sections to store for meat.

Bottom Right: The antlers of the deer.

Next up, I want to talk about our Thanksgiving meal.  While most family's spend the holiday debating whether the dressing is better if it's cooked inside the turkey or as it's own side dish, my family was busy deciding what was the best combination of fruits and vegetables to stuff a pig with.  Yes, pig. As in Wilbur.  I'm not sure who particularly procured the pig but we had a fresh small pig to smoke for Thanksgiving dinner.  (Don't worry, we also had turkey).

The whole experience was really cool to be honest.  At first, I was not crazy about the idea, but if you think about it, people eat ham all the time.  What could be more fresh than smoking our own?  "Pork is a nice sweet meat!" (name that movie!)

We ended up stuffing Wilbur with fresh pineapple, cilantro, onions, green pepper, and orange slices.  After stuffing, we realized we needed to close him up somehow.  My ever resourceful mom just happened to have a large needle that could handle cooking string.  Tony sharpened the needle and, rather expertly, sewed him up with the fruits and veggies inside.  The novelty made for great pictures and an interesting story but I would even say that it tasted great!

Top Left: Wilbur's feet

Bottom Left: Wilbur's snout

Top Right: Sewing him closed

Bottom Right: a close up of the activity

Over the break we also did a little decorating.  This is the first Christmas under the lake pavilion and it was designed with decorations in mind (all the electrical outlets are in the perfect place). This past summer Jordan and I did a little errand for mom and picked up a used, prelit Christmas tree from a Craigslist posting. It turned out to be a 9 foot tree that was in pretty good shape.  Dad whipped up a custom 3x3x1 ft tree stand and we put together the Christmas tree.  Mom dressed the fireplace mantle beautifully and we started on a garland project.  The garland was a pinspiration and turned out beautifully!

Top Left: Jordan working hard on the tree.  It was a little tricky to put it together and some of the lights refused to light.

Top Right: The fireplace with a roaring fire

Bottom Left: Finished tree and Jordan

Bottom Middle: Red and white garland in progress

Bottom Right: Finished garland hung up by the windows

It was extremely cold the days following Thanksgiving.  Everyone was bundled in sweaters, coats, gloves, and hats and luckily, we had a few heaters (in addition to the fireplace) to keep us warm.  Before Thanksgiving, mom found 2 Deer Born heaters on Craigslist (seriously a great place to find deals).  I've seen a Deer Born heater before but I never realized how well they work. They are super powerful and really pump out the heat.  Now I really want one for our house!  My Aunt Cindy also had a fancy heater to lend to the party.  That heater was one that you would find on a restaurant patio or other public places.  It is tall but really cast a lot of heat down to the people around it.

Top Left: Red hot heater

Bottom Left: Deer Born (6 elements, propane powered)

Right: At least 4 men trying to make the heater work properly.  Like the Christmas tree, the heater refused to light and it was really funny to watch all the men hypothesize and test their theories.

I'm not sure if I'm getting more lazy with age, but I thoroughly enjoyed a couple hours warm in the house.  I found a few hours to listen to music (Taylor Swift was the artist of the day), do a little crocheting and snuggling with Abby.  As much as that may have been unproductive, it truly was enjoyable!  Meanwhile, Jordan and dad were busy working on a custom roll away island.  Designed and engineered by dad, Jordan and him made an awesome (and heavy) island for mom for Christmas.  We have a lot of meals under the pavilion and there is very little counter space for parties.  Plus, mom really needed more storage for all the kitchen supplies.  (One must have some place to store a gigantic wok after all!)

Top Left: The roll away island in progress.  I'll provide more pictures once it is completely finished!  It still needs a counter top, electric, and paint.

Top Right: Me and Abby snuggling.  

Bottom Left: The tools used to put together the roll away island

Bottom Right: Abby acting ashamed of her red and white Christmas bow on her neck.  When we are at the lake, Abby quickly transforms from city-dog to country-dog.  She was not thrilled about her new necktie but looked cute!

True to our family traditions, no holiday would be complete without a little music.  There are several people in my family who place instruments.  Dad plays the baritone, mom plays the clarinet, Aunt Cindy place the french horn and apparently the trumpet too, I play the flute, Uncle Tony plays the trumpet, my cousin, Stphanie, plays the clarinet, and there are several others!  That is just a list of instrumentalists on one side of my family!  There are just as many on the other side!  We were practicing (rather painfully) some songs to play for the upcoming Christmas parade.  It was a nice transition from Thanksgiving to the Christmas spirit.

Top Left: Dad and Cindy playing some beautiful music.  They always duet well together.

Top Right: Mom (clarinet), Uncle Tony (trumpet), Stefanie (clarinet), me (flute), Dad (baritone in the back), and our neighbor, Bri (trombone in the back).

Bottom Left: Thanksgiving meal!  It was SO delicious!

Bottom Right: Wilbur meat!  Some of you might find that unappetizing but it tasted great!  

After we returned home, Jordan and I had a relaxing but productive day.  We had already decorated the inside of our house with Christmas decorations, but found time to put lights on the outside of the house!  Jordan and I both like the old-school, large bulbs, so we managed to find them in an LED version.  They really turned out beautiful and Jordan always does a great job putting them on our house.

Top Left: Jordan on the roof.  Check out the neon yellow hat he's sporting.  It also has a reflective strip on it just in case you couldn't see him.

Top Right: the large bulbs on the corner of our house

Bottom Left: Abby was exhausted from all the hubbub of the holiday and fell asleep with her tongue hanging out.  I wish I could have taken video of her because she was growling and barking in her sleep and that little pink tongue was going crazy.  Dreaming of F-O-O-D I suppose.

Bottom Right: Our beautiful Christmas tree!  We have several presents already under the tree and it looks beautiful in our house.  Notice the green ornament hung by the fire! (Previous post about that HERE) We had an excellent time decorating the tree with cocoa and Christmas music!

We hope you all are keeping warm and enjoying the holiday season!