soo I kinda made a turkey on saturday..

There are about 4 or 5 things I consider to create a Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey, Canned Cranberry, Green bean casserole,mashed potatoes, apple pie and maybe the pumpkin cheesecake my mother soo lovingly makes just for me.

I just I didn't really think about what it would be like not being home for Thanksgiving. I suppose I should have made more of a conscience effort to prepare myself. But it seemed that after my weekend in Paris (which was exhausting) the idea of not being home seemed to hit me like a ton of bricks. Maybe it was that I wasn't really getting along with some friends (you spend as much time as we all do together and its bound to happen) or I was coming down with a cold.. but it made me miss home more then ever. I have already figured out that thing they call homesickness comes in waves. Sometimes small waves that you can see coming and sometimes huge ones that slam you to the ground when you're just coming up for air. As the time I have left here comes to a close and its coming up faster and faster the idea of leaving is bittersweet. To be around friends and family who understand your quarks and are still obligated to love you is a blessing.

UCD sponsored a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday but I had a feeling to go and try to pretend that the food they were serving would be anything remotely as good as what the rest of my family was eating would be like window shopping. Just cruel. Don't try to sell me tofu and tell me its turkey. I won't believe you. So Sean and I walked to Tesco and we found turkey. It was frozen. Apparently turkeys aren't from Ireland. who knew? Soo we decided on the spot that we would make thanksgiving dinner on Saturday (giving the turkey time to thaw) and that we would make a small roasted chicken. So on Thanksgiving day, I made with my own two little hands (because Sean seemed to have work to do for school right around 4, making him M.I.A, boys are smart) I made a roasted chicken with stuffing, grilled garlic spinach, and baked sweet potato. After a bottle of wine though I managed to talk Sean into walking with me to get some ice cream for dessert and made a brownie sundae with barley's. It was amazing.

I'm not sure if cooking for Brad gave me complex but I seem to nit pick at everything I make and expect people to do nothing but complain about it. Sean did nothing but praise my meal and told me it was a good practice bird for Saturday. Wonderful. We managed to get left overs out of the bird and I still was able to have cold chicken and cranberry sandwich for lunch the next morning. Yummy. I can pretend atleast right?

I spent black Friday shopping with Shannon. It was relaxing.. though I went to look for a European dress for the wedding but apparently my taste isn't European enough bc I couldn't bring myself to buy anything that looked like it was from the 80's. I got back around 6 and began working on making an apple pie from scratch. I've made pie before at at home we have this wonderful thing called Pillsbury Dough Boy. It means you don't ever have to make pie crust again. Well not in Ireland, in fact I asked if they had pie crust and the women looked at me like I was nuts. I guess crust is called pastry here, not that they make it here anyways.. Soo I decided I wanted my apple freaking pie and I was going to make my own pie crust. So after finding a rolling pin and a pie pan that wasn't really a pie pan (its a cake pan, but you use what you can find here in Ireland).

So it was a Friday night and there I was peeling apples and rolling out dough till 10..determined to create an edible pie. I wouldn't let anyone eat it till Saturday though.

So Saturday, I woke Sean up and we walked to Tesco again and grabbed the last minute stuff and he tells me he has to meet a friend to do some project at 2. (I had to put the turkey in at 3) Again.. boys are just soo clever. Soo with a little help from Annabelle..we couldn't figure out how to get the neck out. I'm not really a big fan of touching raw meat, especially raw meat that is still in the shape of its once alive form. But I pulled through, and even stuffed the damn thing. I just kept telling myself that I was going to have to learn how to do this one day.. my mother won't be around forever. Soo I also took the time while the turkey cooked to vacuum the apartment, do two loads of laundry, and clean the kitchen about 10 times. I seriously felt like a housewife. But as the smell of turkey filled the apartment, it started to feel like a home. Which I haven't gotten in a long time. For dinner I made turkey, stuffing, green beans, cranberry and gravy. Annabelle made mashed potatoes because mine always turn out lumpy. And of course for dessert we had apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Best Dinner Ever. All things considered, I don't think it was a bad Thanksgiving at all. And the thing that amazed me was my mother always said the judge of a good cook was when they are able to get everything out of the kitchen and warm all at the same time. Well two nights in a row I was able to get the entire meal out, all hot at the same time. I know, it made me feel awesome. I was in bed by 10 though, because I've had this cold coming on for a few days and after making the meal and cleaning and such I was just exhausted.

Sunday, I woke to find a day that meant in the Bush/Kelleher house, you stay in bed and watch movies all day. It was gray, dark, rainy and freezing. Soo I woke up around 12, watching a scary movie with Sean, and then worked on my feminism final for a bit, had thanksgiving dinner again and then watched Love Actually and passed out. It's lovely doing nothing and not having anywhere in particular you need to be.

This week is going to be full of studying though, I had exams next Monday and Tuesday. I am a bit worried because they are all essay questions and they count for 80% of the class. Hopefully they will take pity on my American soul. I'm off for a nap though, I got up at 8 and helped Aunt Mary run Aideen's preschool class for 3 hours. It was nice being around little kids again. They are a lot of fun and they are far less complicated human beings. I sometimes forget how much fun it can be to look at the world thru the eyes of a little kid.

Good Afternoon Ireland, Good Morning America.