Country Thanksgiving

Here we were on a new adventure. This was our first Thanksgiving after moving out of the New York City to the country. We were totally taken with the country charm, and we invited a houseful of guests from the city to spend the weekend in the country and celebrate Thanksgiving with us. We had a turkey and all the trimmings ready to go. Because of all the extras, there was no room in the refrigerator for the turkey by Wednesday. We planned, of course, to rise early and prepare the turkey for cooking. What should we do with the uncooked turkey overnight? We figured out the solution, leave it outside the door on the patio. The temperature was adequately cold to keep it fresh. Problem solved. Early Thursday morning, as most of us were slowly rising, we heard my husband say, "Oh my goodness. The racoons ate our turkey. Hope they enjoyed it". Thinking it was a joke, we laughed heartily, until we realized that he wasn't kidding! How did we know? City folk don't think of these things. After a good laugh and talk about the possibility of having pizza for dinner, we called several local supermarkets. Finally, we found one with a large enough and not frozen turkey that we could still prepare and cook just in time to save Our First Country Thanksgiving.