It's officially Thanksgiving. Almost 2 AM, actually. I have an overwhelming amount of work to get done to make sure the place is both ready for company and ready for turkey.
To stay focused and calm, I've revisited the incident that occurred last Thanksgiving:
It would be unheard of for Thanksgiving to have gone by smoothly. I planned the meal for 2pm. Around that time, the smoke alarm began to go off. I noticed smoke was quickly filling up the apartment. I knew it wasn't the turkey as I had removed it about 30 mins ago. But I went to the oven which I figured could be the only culprit. Upon opening the door, I saw a rather large fire had started inside the oven, thanks to the drippings that had accumulated by the heating element. My immediate reaction was to think "Hmmmm" and close the oven door. I sat there for a few seconds thinking this situation could not be good when my husband came back in the apt. He saw the fire and freaked, telling me to get water quick. I filled a cup of water up and began to try to figure out why I had this overwhelming feeling that water would not solve things. I took a few steps back and tossed water onto the flames, only to see the fire double in size and shoot out the top of the stove. While my husband ran downstairs to get the fire extinguisher, I closed the oven door again and turned the oven off. That seemed to do the trick, actually, and by the time he returned with the extinguisher the fire was out. So the moral of the story is- don't use water on fires in an electric stove (which makes so much sense now) and sometimes pretending things don't exist will help....
So, basically...as long as I don't set anything on fire this year, Thanksgiving will be a success.