Doing Things Differently

It’s pretty common for us to say things about doing things differently, stepping out of your comfort zone, and facing your fears. For me right now, it’s this—cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving!

I think I have only cooked a turkey one other time—that was 10 years ago and I have no idea how I did it. For the past 20+ years, my mother-in-law graciously cooked the turkey while I perfected cooking the ham—the one thanksgiving meat that is essentially already cooked and I just have to bake it and not burn it. Once we moved to North Carolina and started our own small family dinner, we decided to let go of having a turkey and stick to the sure thing of a baked ham.

Until this year.

The kids have asked for a turkey on the Thanksgiving menu and table, and, naturally, Brandon and I told them yes.

Keep in mind, Brandon and I both do not know what we’re doing. For days Brandon has been telling me he saw a reel and depending on how many pounds your turkey is, it may be time to start defrosting. I had to tell him I haven’t even bought a turkey yet.

And even though we don’t know what we are doing and even though we could really mess this up (I’m picturing the turkey on the Christmas Vacation movie), we also know this is all figure-out-able.

We know we can try new things.

We know we can mess things up.

We know to do the best we can.

We know we can’t make everything perfect.

We know it’s all a part of the process.

We know this is the fun part.

Yesterday we bought a turkey and it was already defrosted. Today is the day before Thanksgiving and we’re going to bake pies with the younger kids, we’re going to await the arrival of our older kids, and we’re going to google, “how to make the best Thanksgiving turkey.”

This whole turkey-baking idea may or may not work, and that is okay. We will continue to do things differently, step out of our comfort zone, and face our fears. We will continue to trust the process and enjoy every step of the way.

Also, how do you bake a turkey?