today the in-laws came over for dinner. that included BIL and his family. FIL turned 60 this year, and BIL wanted to do something together as a family. after lots of back-and-forthing and changing of plans, it was decided that we would do dinner here. order sushi? make something? order something else? a couple of weeks ago i asked yoshi what they had decided and he admitted that nothing had been so i offered to make a turkey dinner. i wasn't going to do thanksgiving but i figured it's probably better to do turkey sooner rather than later just in case everyone runs out before christmas (still planning a christmas turkey, as long as i can get one in december!)

SIL made several dishes and brought them (including sekihan--red beans and rice), and the PIL brought HUGE trays of sushi and i admit to being a bit peeved at first but then i figured, they want to eat what they want to eat so...they enjoyed the turkey and trimmings, too, so that's ok. it was a lot of work for me, especially cleaning up dishes one by one (because my kitchen is so small--i'm not complaining, only sayin') but in the end the kids had a fabulous time, my in-laws looked happy and while my family is here, everyone else has buggered off to a hotel so WIN! yay.

i think they're coming over again tomorrow, but i have a private lesson to teach, so i probably won't see them much. win again!

i have so much to post about, still, especially the kids' open day at their school last thursday. good for nablopomo right?

i was going to post about an hour ago, when the kids had just fallen asleep, but then yoshi came home and reminded me that i couldn't find the keys to the car.

oh man, that feeling? sucks.

i had told him earlier in the evening, when i called him to see when he was coming home, that i couldn't find the keys and suspected that the kids had done something to them. i was really stressed, though, and couldn't even think about looking for them (though i did, a bit.) (neither sasha nor hiro took naps today, and tommy only got about 30 minutes in this morning. well, just at noon. anyway, that meant melt-down central here at our house, with each kid going off about every other minute or so. one reason i called yoshi in desperation....but that also meant that they were all asleep by 8:20. thank goodness!) we spent nearly an hour looking for those damn keys. i had taken them off sasha earlier in the day, and i put them in their regular spot (in a bowl, in the genkan) but (and i can only guess it was sasha) someone took them again, and they were gone. if you know me, then you know that i'm rather forgetful and i couldn't remember if i put them away, or if i had put them somewhere at the time i took them off sasha and then couldn't remember. after searching high and low downstairs, and starting to panic that the kids had lost them outside, i remembered that they had also been up and down the stairs and had played a bit in their room. so, i went up there and after a little search, i found them! HUGE sigh of relief, i can tell you.

so, anyway, yesterday i put on a turkey/thanksgiving dinner for friends. i am trying to start some teaching from home, and at the moment am concentrating on adult students. mainly a 'have a coffee and cake over casual conversation', as described by mee a bee. my best student, a close neighbor, has been so lovely these past few months that i offered to make a turkey for one of our 'lessons' and we both invited friends. in spite of all the work (seriously, cleaning my house is practically a marathon. cooking thanksgiving dinner is a breeze in comparison!!) it was so nice and so much fun with good friends and lively conversation! i am glad to say that i am thankful for friends this year! i invited kuri and pinglet, and our friend K and her daughter, and the kids got along really well. thank you so much for coming over and enjoying dinner with us! if you're interested, i made: roasted turkey with stuffing, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, steamed broccoli and pumpkin pie. already made foods were: bread rolls and cranberry jelly. it was all pretty good, though i say it myself. K brought a scrumptious hand made cake, and kuri brought little ice creams for the kids. fabulous!

i only took a couple of pictures of the turkey, and haven't uploaded them yet, so sadly, once again, no pictures of thanksgiving this year! sorry!

...but i didn't take any pictures at dinner. sorry. it turned out really well, though. except the turkey got a bit over-cooked. oven's fault. haha. i used the steam roast option, and the fan kept blowing off the foil i put over the breast. also, i cooked it at a bit too high temperature for the first hour and a half. but it was still really good and there's lots of leftovers. i'm sending some home with my in-laws (if they want it) and have plenty for a pot pie and sandwiches.

my in-laws surprised me at dinner. i usually moan about the fact that the japanese boil the hell out of their veggies. never a raw vegetable anywhere. in our family, though, my mom usually serves a veggie dip plate (including carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower and green onions) so i put out carrot and celery spears, and served them with blue cheese dressing. they loved them, especially my father-in-law. he kept going on about how he'd never had raw carrot before and it was really good. they also liked the dressing. they could have been kissing-up, but i think they really liked it.

also popular was the cranberry sauce. growing up, my sister was known for loving cranberry sauce and we had to keep it away from her until she had eaten some turkey and veggies. well, it looks like sasha is going to take that role in our family! seriously, yoshi gave her some cranberry sauce and she sucked it down, held out her bowl and said, 'more!' she has never done that before (said, 'more.') and she did it about six times! it was soooooo cute! if we ever have a turkey dinner with aunt katie, we'll need two or three cans of that stuff!! ;)

my pie turned out really well, though my mother-in-law couldn't finish her serving. she ate too much at dinner! actually, my father-in-law said that the dinner was like a restaurant experience, it's that different for them. they'd never had turkey before, and it was the second time for them that they were served something from a whole bird (i made a chicken last year). i am glad they enjoyed it, and thankfully it went well.

the mashed potatoes were perfect. the gravy was nearly perfect (not quite thick enough, but wonderful). i made a new dish (for me) with green beans and persimmon, it was nice. a lovely thanksgiving dinner with my family and my husband's parents.

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nay sent me some interview questions so i hope to get to that tomorrow or monday.