sumeera younis.: Thanksgiving in DC

She was an all right bird.

This year, I hosted my first Thanksgiving and was lucky enough to have my mom and sisters stay with us. I got sick for the first time in years the week of Thanksgiving and was afraid that I would have to order some Kebab Palace for the meal. But I pushed through and got a somewhat edible Thanksgiving dinner on the table!

It all started on Monday when we went in search of our fresh turkey. There was some confusion about whether there was a fresh turkey available at the first place we went to, so Feraz and I ended up at different butchers. While I was trying to justify buying an 18 pound turkey to myself (the only size the other butcher had), I got a call from Feraz saying that the original butcher had found a 12 pound turkey. What? Found it? "Lets get it!" I told him.

As we were walking around Safeway gathering up last minute groceries, Feraz looked at me in pity.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I feel bad for you. Cooking the turkey is going to be nasty."

"Yeah. But I've done chickens before. I'll get through it."

"But you have to cut the head off this time."

"..."

WHAT?

THE HEAD IS STILL ON THE TURKEY?!

I may have said some things to Feraz that I'm not proud of. But really, if you are at a butcher, shouldn't you ask him to take the head off???

This guy is lucky he is so cute.

We got home and for a moment, we thought the head had been cut off. We pulled the turkey out of the bag... and nope...there was the head. Its little turkey face just looking out at us. I quickly covered the head back up with the bag and then got to work. In Feraz's defense, he offered to take the head off. This is coming from a guy who gets queasy handling cleaned chicken breast. It was a noble gesture and probably what saved him from sleeping on the couch. (Do people actually ever make their husbands sleep on couches?)

In the end, in a few days of complete head cold haze, the turkey, the chicken biryani, the trifle dessert and all the sides got made. And best of all, I got to spend time with some of the people I love most. Pictures below!