Marissa insisted that I make a turkey for Thanksgiving, so last week's shopping event included the smallest one I could find - a 10 pounder. Which looked like - and turned out to be - a lot of turkey.

I was up fairly early to get the prep work going. I made a basting sauce of melted butter, merlot, tamari, marjoram, and thyme and rubbed that bird down really well. Stuck it in the oven uncovered for about an hour to sear, then reduced the heat to around 400 and let it cook really good for an hour and a half. Then just shut the oven down and let it sit until late afternoon. Around 4 I fired the oven back up to about 400 and let her cook another hour while I peeled a bag of potatoes and about 8 parsnips and cooked them up. Made some gravey with the jucies in the pan and fixed up some quick premade stuffing and we had a nice meal.

We also had our first snowfall of the season. Not much; just a dusting - but it was beautiful. I took a few pictures, though it was prettier, of course, than a picture can show.

The whole weeked was very relaxing for me and I got a chance to really unwind. Friday, Marissa hung out with one of her friends, so Friday night a friend came over and we had - gee, guess what: left over turkey. We played some casual backgammon, watched a movie, and just basically relaxed.

Saturday, it snowed lightly most of the day and it was nice just sitting in the living room reading and watching it come down. Saturday night, I took Marissa out for Subway sandwiches and then we went to see the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. And Sunday we just relaxed!