Thanksgiving prep began the Friday before when John and I made our annual Whole Foods mega trip for ingredients.
On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I prepped as much as I could in advance of Thursday. I made cinnamon ice cream, baked four french bread boules, made cranberry sauce, and brined our turkey.
On Wednesday morning we hit the road for New Jersey at 6:45am. I definitely needed my chai tea latte; it was eaaarrrrrly. We were grateful though because we didn’t hit any holiday traffic at all (not even in NYC, not even in the pouring rain) and the drive was a quick one.
On Thursday morning we prepped the turkey for roasting. John drained off all the brine while I gathered the rest of the ingredients for cooking.
I tweaked my 2011 turkey brine recipe slightly and will be posting an updated recipe soon.
We dressed the turkey and roasted it for 3.5 hours. It came out perfectly!
The whole meal was delicious actually. I was really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year and it did not disappoint.
The rest of our time in NJ consisted of sitting around in sweatpants, making the rounds to see John’s grandparents, sleeping, and watching movies. It was super relaxing, exactly what we needed. I’m ready to go back to work now though, I feel recharged enough to get to Christmas.
Domestocrat 
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