Witnessing Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday.

And this past holiday weekend has been one of my favorites. I haven't gotten all the Christmas stuff out yet, but Christmas is always intruding on Thanksgiving's territory, so I don't really feel bad about Thanksgiving intruding on Christmas's.

On Tuesday this week, I stopped at 7-Eleven to get some turkey-flavored and pumpkin pie-flavored potato chips (see below). As I was stopped at the stoplight, I noticed some men on the sidewalk yelling at each other. I wasn't sure what to do. So as I pulled into the 7-Eleven parking lot across the street, I called non-emergency dispatch, because by then it had started to get physical. But while I was talking to the dispatcher, the fight seemed to break up. At least I tried. The dispatcher asked for a description and asked if they were white, Hispanic, or black. I said, "I can't tell." Which was a dumb thing to say; I should have said; "They're not black, but I can't tell whether they're white or Hispanic." Oh well.

On Wednesday morning, I drove past the Bountiful golf course yet again, and finally saw wild turkeys. I was really cutting it close to see them before Thanksgiving, but thankfully they cooperated. And then I saw them again the day after Thanksgiving.

 On Wednesday evening, I helped prepare pie fillings for Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving morning, the weather was perfect for a run. I went on the Wild Rose Trail, where I saw my previous bishop and his family, and some of its surrounding trails.

 But then I decided to go on a little side trail that I have seen but never been on, not knowing where it would go.

Not sure how I got it so sideways.

 As I made it to the bottom, I found myself in City Creek Canyon, where I'd never been before. I thought I'd explore that trail a bit before turning around. Eventually I made it back to the trail where I'd come down. I started back up, and some hikers on the side said to me, "You can do it!" But I couldn't do it, at least not running. I had already run eight miles, and it was a steep hill. So instead I walked up; it was about a mile, and even just walking, it was difficult. I should have taken more water with me, but I didn't think my whole CamelBak was necessary in November. Once I got back to the top of the hill, I started running again, but after less than two miles, I had to walk the rest of the way home. In total, I went twelve miles, but I walked two of those miles. I was totally exhausted when I got home and worried I'd be useless the rest of the holiday, but after resting in the hot tub, I felt much better.

I spent the rest of the day trying to prepare foods. It was a homegrown holiday: I made cherry and cherry meringue pies using frozen cherries from my sister's tree, and mincemeat pie using apples from our own tree, and we had grape juice we bottled from our own vines.

Not a pretty picture, but we had cherry, mincemeat, and cherry meringue pies.

 I tried to make butternut squash, but it didn't have time to cook before my grandparents arrived with the turkeys. The turkeys hadn't cooked at my grandparents' house, so we had to put them back in the oven. Even after they were "cooked," I worried we might get food poisoning from the meat and the stuffing, because my grandparents' definition of "thoroughly cooked" is not my definition.

My grandma forgot the cranberry sauce, but luckily we had some cranberries in the freezer, so I whipped up some sauce. I had never made cranberry sauce before, but I was pleased with how quick, easy, and tasty it was. But I don't think most people had any because of all the weird food timing.

We had lots of family over. It was super hot, since it was a record-high Thanksgiving, and the oven had been on all day, due to rolls, squash, and turkey.

The next day, Black Friday, I decided to run up Mueller Park, which I have never done in November before. It has been several months since I've been in Mueller Park (I prefer North Canyon because it's closer, prettier, less busy, and more challenging), so I was surprised to see they had dissembled all the "tepees" and made them into a barrier.

 I was also completely charmed to see a few trees decorated for Christmas, even though it's technically litter.

Then on Friday evening, I accompanied my sister and my niece to Vivint Smart Home Arena for Katy Perry's Witness Tour! I'm totally a basic white girl, since I like pumpkin spice everything, kitties, and girly pop music.

It was actually a lot funner than I thought it would be, and it was even cleaner than I expected. I was nervous, because her Witness album is a little boring and inappropriate, but she cleaned it up a little, and she sang a lot of her older songs as well (and not every song from Witness). It was a fun way to spend Thanksgiving weekend, and she made a few references to the timing of the concert. At the beginning, she asked, "Are you stuffed? Are you in a food coma from Thanksgiving?" She invited a ten-year-old girl to the stage and asked her if she ate all her Thanksgiving dinner; the girl confessed that she only ate the marshmallowy part of her sweet potatoes. Later she invited a dad to the stage for a competition involving giant basketballs and a giant hoop. After he won against her for the state of Utah, she ripped open his shirt.

I'm sure there are dozens, even hundreds, of people who are just as talented as Katy Perry is, but she has that charisma that makes her a star. And probably a lot of luck. I didn't think she was as good a singer live--but truth be told, it was a little hard to hear her singing over the sound system.

I rarely see movies, but my family took me to two this weekend: Wonder, which was pretty good, and Coco, which was the best movie I've seen in a while. (Olaf's Frozen Adventure was forgettable.)

I also ran up North Canyon again, and I saw more runners there than I have ever seen before. Is my secret being discovered?!

Even though I did all that running, I've still gained some weight this week. But if this heat wave keeps up, it might be easy to work it off again.

***

Now that Thanksgiving has ended, so has pumpkinundation roundup. Last year I extended it through Christmas, but I found that there wasn't a lot of pumpkin stuff left at Christmas. While it was fun to document all the peppermint, gingerbread, eggnog, sugar cookie, and other Christmas goodies I had,  I had better not. I've found that I have been buying and eating pumpkin things I didn't really want that much just so I could document it. For my own health, I need to stop. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping, but a few months ago, I noticed I was sleeping fine. Then pumpkin season started again, and so did the sleep problems. I think it's all the sugar. I will still eat way too much sugar, but I will have less of a reason to do so.

 Ittella Pumpkin Spice Panettone is a brioche with candied pumpkin bits in it. It was better than I expected for a loaf with a long shelf life. I'm not sure what to make of the candied pumpkin, though. 6/10.

 Meadow Gold Pumpkin Spice Egg Nog was the first pumpkin eggnog I knew of. I don't think they've changed their packaging since 2007. Eggnog is great, and so is pumpkin eggnog. 10/10.

 A few weeks ago, Kneaders had samples of their Kneaders pumpkin bread, but right as I was about to grab some, they took the tray away and threw the bread away! But then they had some again this week. It's hard to go wrong with pumpkin bread. 9/10.

 I prefer homemade apple pie to Kneaders apple pie. 7/10.

 I went to 7-Eleven to get 7-Select Turkey & Gravy Flavored Kettle Cooked Chips. It does actually taste like turkey and gravy, but it also tastes like sour cream and onion. I like them. 8/10.

 They also had 7-Select Pumpkin Pie Flavored Kettle Cooked Chips. These had a sweet coating, and they were also good. 8/10.

 I wanted a pumpkin smoothie from Keva Juice, but they were all out of milk. What?! So I went and got Cold Stone Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream, but apparently the picture didn't take. It was OK, but it really tasted more like cheesecake and not much (if anything) like pumpkin. 6/10. Since I was cheated out of a smoothie, I got a Bahama Buck's Pumpkin Smoothie. It basically just tasted like shaved ice mixed with milk and stuff. I didn't detect any real pumpkin, which seems like an easy thing to put in a smoothie. 6/10.

 I had a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Apple Pie Apple, which is a caramel apple with a white confection and spices on it. It's good. 8/10.

This unappetizing picture shows three other pies we had for Thanksgiving: apple pie, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. All of it was homemade, and the pumpkin used fresh pumpkin. But the pumpkin wasn't as good as I had hoped/expected. 10/10, 8/10, 10/10.