Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Last night, Tony and I made healthy, homemade tamales, for our Thanksgiving dinner, today! It was a lot of fun, and I am proud to say that we made thirty-one tamales! Count them!

This morning, at six o’clock, after we ate breakfast, we started cooking, the Thanksgiving dinner— for our dogs! Aaron called us at seven-fifteen, ‘I need coffee. I forgot that the Old Timer was closed. Can I come over, now?”

Tony picked up the phone. “We’ve got coffee. Come on over, the gate is—open.” Ten minutes later, Aaron was drinking a cup of coffee, in our kitchen. After drinking two cups, he and Tony went outside to get the four feed buckets.

This was Aaron’s first time, to ever cook a Thanksgiving dinner for forty-three homeless dogs, and he was anxious to get started! Since Tony and I have cooked Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, for our dogs, for over ten years—it was still exciting! It always makes me tear up.

“Aaron, these are your two buckets and these are mine,” Tony said. “This is your drill with the paddle mixer and this one is mine.” Tony then picked up a large sack of premium dry dog food, and then poured it equally into the four buckets. “We’ll do the eggs next.” Tony handed Aaron a carton of thirty-six eggs. “Now, put eighteen eggs into your two buckets.”

As they cracked eggs, I stirred the vegetables in the giant pots on my stovetop. “When do we get to use the drills?” Aaron asked.

“Not yet,” Tony said, acting like a drill sergeant. I started laughing, because Neil Young was singing, ‘Comes A Time!’ He was singing, ‘Oh, Oh, This old world keeps spinning round...’ They didn’t get it.

Tony then handed Aaron a giant package of shredded cheddar cheese. Then they added the cheese, two big jars of garlic, and the two large bottles of olive oil. I grabbed the six large bags of Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Stuffing and gave them—three bags each, to add to their buckets. “We’re ready to mix,” Tony declared.

As they mixed the food, I took a few pictures of them. Then there was a knock on the door! It was Josh! He had come to help us! When the men quit mixing, Aaron and Tony added the fifteen pounds of ground turkey, while Josh added twenty-four cans, of high dollar dog food, into the four buckets. “We’re ready to mix,” Tony said Aaron grabbed Tony’s big drill, and gave Josh the smaller drill—then they went to mixing!

As those two mixed, Tony removed the heavy vegetable pan from inside the oven and began pouring in the twenty pounds of hot, cooked mixed vegetables—corn, peas, green beans, carrots and lima beans!

While they were mixing in the last of the vegetables, I phoned Kinky. “Kinky, we’re fixin’ to serve our dogs their Thanksgiving dinner!”

“I’m on my way!”

Josh and Aaron turned off their drills, and the three of them carried out the four, very heavy, hot buckets of food, and they put them in Kermit.

“Happy Thanksgiving!” I said to the dogs, as Tony, Aaron and Josh began serving our dogs their warm—Thanksgiving dinner! I then started skipping around the pens to take pictures and to wish each dog a Happy Thanksgiving!

When Kinky arrived, he and I watched the awesome tail-wagging event unfold. When all of the dogs had gobbled up their meals, Tony, Aaron and Josh went back and fed everyone seconds!

After Aaron, Josh and Tony had finished washing out their buckets and utensils, Kinky visted with everyone.

I hope that y’all have as good of a Thanksgiving as I have had!