i got ready to leave for belmont in the late morning. i felt a little guilty leaving my roommate alone at home on thanksgiving, but he's not really family and it'd be awkward having a stranger at the table. maybe a more generous person would extend an invite, but i've been waiting all year for this scrumptious feast and i didn't want to be burdened with being a babysitter. as a consolation gesture i turned the heat up in the house, my little thanksgiving gift for abandoning him.

i took the motorcycle, figuring i might not want to bicycle back after having a big meal (or maybe i would, just to get a head start on shedding those extra calories). the house was much cleaner that yesterday, but still needed some decluttering. my main job was to sprinkle some carpet deodorizer and vacuum the rugs in the living room. i found the automatic carpet brush head for the old hoover vacuum which made it much easier. my father came back from fixing lunch for my great uncle around 1:00 and we finally put the turkey into the oven.

the 22 lbs. turkey ended up taking more than 4 hours in the oven. my parents stuffed it with glutinous rice but there wasn't enough juices to cook the rice completely. tin foil covered the bird for the first 2 hours then was removed for the final 2 hours. originally we were going to take hailey out into the woods for a walk, but with all the cleaning and cooking, there wasn't any time. my aunt and uncle arrived sometime after 5:00 and my father went to go pick up my great uncle around that same time.

there was very little drama this thanksgiving, partly because we had so few people. the only sour note was hailey's bullying of my great uncle: every time he left his seat, she would start barking. the television was on, tuned to the cowboys-raiders game. matthew said i could borrow some of his bike repair equipment, including a wheel truing stand. the turkey was larger than what we needed so we only managed to eat half. i myself only had 2 turkey rollups, one of the staples of thanksgiving. my father drove back my great uncle after dinner, but came back to join everyone for dessert: giant asian pears and flan. there was also a dessert soup that i didn't get a chance to try (often the case with these thanksgiving meals, there's so much food that a few items always slip through the cracks).

i was eager to get back home because it had started to drizzle a little bit, with more rain expected throughout the night and into all of tomorrow (and the possibility of some wet snow). with my saddlebags loaded with leftovers, i came back to cambridge. after giving the engine enough time to cool off, i went back outside and put on the rain cover. i let my roommate try some leftover turkey, maybe next week we'll do lobsters, another new england delicacy he wanted to sample. we're also making pizza one of these nights as well.