True to form I am writing about Thanksgiving almost a week late.  Would you expect anything less?

Despite the fact that I do not clean and can not cook, we always host holidays at our house.  Because it wouldn't be a holiday without all the running around shoving things into boxes and trying to cram those boxes under tables that are already overflowing with boxes crammed with stuff from the last holiday, all while screaming at each other to clean up this or move that and swearing that it will never get this bad again.  Right?

It also wouldn't be a holiday without a visit from our friends the Pipe Gremlins now would it?

Less than a week before Thanksgiving day the kid's bedroom flooded.  Again.
I called my husband to give him the bad news and then I ran outside expecting to see the spinning of the dial on the water meter.  No spinning.  What?  No spinning?  This is new.  Where did all this water come from?  If it's not another slab leak what could it be?

My husband came home and we took most of the furniture back out of the kid's room
and pulled the floor up to let the concrete dry.
Then we attempted to solve the mystery of the source of all the water.

I had just given my daughter a bath.  So we decided to test the bath tub.  We filled a bucket with water and dumped it down the drain.  No leak while we were filling the bucket but the minute we dumped it we had water.  So, this time it is the drain from the bathtub.  You know, one of the very few pipes left in this whole house that hasn't been replaced (drain line from house to street and fresh water leading from street to house) or recoated (all fresh water pipes inside house) or capped off (gas line) or something.  Good thing our house has two bathrooms.  I guess we will just have to redo the other half of the bathroom...

With all this going on and all the furniture scattered about the house, kids camping out in the living room on their mattress on the floor, pieces of floor everywhere, and the rest of the mess in the house,
I was tempted to cancel Thanksgiving.  Not the actual holiday because I don't have that kind of power or anything, just our own little celebration.

Then I found out that several of our guests would be unable to make it because seasonal illnesses.  I came very close to opting for all going out to eat somewhere.

Instead I decided to cheat.

Now I am not going to pretend I haven't cheated in the past.  In fact I have always cheated at least a little bit.  I have only ever cooked one Turkey.  It was a very interesting process involving many various kitchen instruments (I don't touch raw meat) and took about 11 hours in the oven waiting for the thermometer to pop before we gave up and ate it anyway.  It looked and tasted cooked!

My current challenge is to try to do more cooking.  I am trying to eat healthier and provide my kids with healthier options.  This is a big challenge in a family full of picky eaters.  I am also not the worlds greatest chef despite the claim of my 4 year old.  I am trying to get away from my dependence on convenience foods.  An added bonus will be all the money we save in the process.