Other than taking Beau out for a walk, Sue and I had a relatively quite 11/26/20 Thursday Thanksgiving at home.

Sue fixed a nice breakfast, and we had it and our coffee in the living room watching the start of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. At least they had the parade giving the conditions with the COVID-19 increasing, but it was strange not to see any crowds.

By the central viewing area, they put up what looked like hundreds of poster sized pictures of people. It was a nice touch, just trying to show some normalcy to this holiday where we try to focus on what we can be thankful for.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade starting off.

It had rained heavily through the night Wednesday and into today. We wanted to take Beau out for a walk, but not when the rain was pelting down big, cold drops driven by a blustery wind. So, we waited until late morning before venturing out as the rain began to taper off.

We suited up into rain jackets, hats, and gloves as it was pretty nippy out. Sue said that the last time she had been down to a local large stream that ran through the woods, that the recent rains had brought the level up so that it was actually churning over the rocks. We've been in such a long and protracted drought that most of the streams have just ceased flowing at all.

As we walked along the road that parallels the stream, I could hear the water crashing even before I could see it. What a treat it was to walk down to the banks and see, and hear, water cascading over the rocks!

Setting Beau up to charge back to Sue.

Here he comes, going like a bat out of hell for sure!

Beau down at the edge of the stream.

Shot up at the bridge with Sue and Beau crossing over the stream.

Great to see the stream full and running so strongly after our recent drought conditions.

We walked a couple of miles, but had hung around one of the small falls area of the stream so we didn't get back home until about 11:30. After I scurried around getting a fire ready in the wood stove, we had a bite to eat for lunch while we caught the last few minutes of the parade with Santa in his sleigh.

Back at the house around noon in time to catch the end of the parade with Santa in his sleigh.

And then I was in full gear in the kitchen getting the turkey ready, while Sue worked her magic preparing stuffing from scratch.

Fortunately, she had made her cranberry sauce and a pumpkin pie the day before because both of those were done from scratch as well.

Anyway, I prepped the turkey using a recipe Master Chef James Haller of the once famous Blue Strawberry Restaurant in Portsmouth, NH had taught me. I splashed about a cup of red Zinfandel over the turkey, and then slathered it with a mix of melted butter, garlic, thyme, pepper, salt, and marjoram.

Getting the turkey into the oven for its preliminary high temperature bake.

That went uncovered into a 500 degree oven for an hour to lock in the juices.

The next step was to drop the oven temp to around 450, splash more wine over the turkey, drape a red wine soaked cheese cloth over it, and then pour more red wine over that.

Yeah, lots of wine pouring going on here....

Then every hour I'd go in, baste the turkey with pan juices as well as pour a little more wine over the cheese cloth to keep it damp, and then rotate the turkey.

Got an early fire going in the wood stove to take the chill out of the air from the rain.

About half way through cooking the turkey, I popped open what turned out to be a lovely bottle of Kenadall Jackson Sauvignon Blanc as Sue got the squash heating up, slid the pan of dressing in next to the turkey, and I got some peas with herbs in a light sauce warming.

From there it was just having a great time with some snacks in the living room enjoying our wine while playing some backgammon until it was time to eat.

We sat down to eat around 4:30.

Just a lovely day. Even the rain began to clear by evening, and by Friday morning, all that was left was an angry, dark, cloud splattered sky.

Very wintry sky Friday morning.