Thanksgiving dinner, as many know, is an affair that requires hours and sometimes days of preparation, planning, and cleanup. Done properly, many family members are involved at each stage, especially the eating of the meal, which typically takes about 20 minutes. This year, however, we found that the sugar rolls, long a staple of holiday indulgence in the family, took an extra, unexpected toll. As the rolls we baking inside the oven just before dinner, a substantial amount of sugar spilled over the baking tray and caused no small amount of smoke to belch forth like oil from the Macondo Deepwater well. This brought Joanne into the role of the cleanup/dance artist as we tried desperately to wave the smoke past the dinner table and out of the open windows (see picture below and remember, we were at 8,200 feet in late November and temps were in the high teens that night). This was marginally successful and we were able to have a nice family dinner (Luke mercifully was overcome by holiday joy and fell asleep - see picture below). Later that night, and actually early the next morning, however, the burning sugar resumed. This was because of an unexpected decision by Joanne to set the oven to its "cleaning" cycle while everyone went to bed. Needless to say, the sugar still had plenty of burning left to go and proceeded to fill the kitchen, plus the rest of the house, with A LOT of smoke by about 1:30 AM. So much smoke, in fact, that the smoke detector went off and began shrieking in its electronic voice: "EVACUATE! SMOKE IN THE HOUSE! EVACUATE!" And of course, the detector in question was 15 feet off the floor, so Nick needed to get the ladder out of the garage and run upstairs to get to the detector to disable it. It should be noted, that EVERYONE, especially Nick, was in a particularly delightful, restorative, deep REM sleep cycle at the time the alarm sounded, and response time was not at all quick on anyone's part. After a frustrating 15 minutes spent arguing with the detector, Nick removed the batteries and silence was restored, leaving the now wide awake family to focus on a house full of smoke and now 10-degree temperatures outside. Thankfully, after a few hours, a number of open windows, and some skillful use of blankets, the smoke was cleared, the oven was cleaned, and relative peace returned. Happy Thanksgiving!
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| Our boys with the Hilty family |
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| The entire gang |
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| Luke decided to get his Thanksgiving food coma underway 1 minute before dinner started. We ate in an unusual degree of peace. |
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| Joanne trying to diffuse the smoke from the sugar rolls baking in the oven. |
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| Aunt Jill, me, Wes and Joanne |
We headed up to the mountains for Thanksgiving to enjoy some rest, relaxation and the best Thanksgiving snow since the 90's. I was really looking forward to getting on the mountain since I had to take last season off. Unfortunately for me, my ski clothes, which Nick thought we up at the Vail house, ended up being stored at home. So no skiing for me but we did end up making it to the rec center pool in Avon to play with the boys.
