My Turkey

I am a stickler when it comes to my Christmas decorations/music/movies. No festive Christmas decorations can go up before December 1 – certainly not before Thanksgiving is over, like some of my friends and family do. And the same goes for Christmas music. I mean, I like some of those hymns, too, but I just can’t see playing the music before December hits. Especially since the music is going to be everywhere, anyway.

That doesn’t mean I don’t like holiday decorations during November, though. In fact, I

feel my house is a bit lacking in decoration spirit, though there are certainly reasons for that. I had a fairly free Sunday coming up and decided it would provide a perfect opportunity for some festive, Thanksgiving-themed fun. I had heard Trader Joe’s hawking their gingerbread turkey kits on the radio this past week, and I figured that would be a good project to work on. It took two trips to Trader Joe’s (the one in Springfield was out…surprise surprise…they’re usually out of things we go looking for), but we finally located a bunch of kits at the store in Fairfax.

David’s Turkey

Mom and I picked up four kits – one each for myself, Robert, my friend David, and an extra in case my sister stopped by – and scouted the nearby Rite Aid for some supplemental candy ornamentation.

The kits require a bit of preparation, beyond the actual bird assembly. Since the stuff will harden pretty quickly, the kits don’t include pre-mixed adhesive icing. Instead, you have an 8.8 oz box of powdered sugar, a piping bag, and instructions for adding an egg white and some lemon juice or vinegar. We knew we’d need at least three piping bags of icing, so we got to work. I separated the eggs (which I learned how to do for the very first time last year!) and Robert got to whipping them to a frothy frenzy. Then we slowly added the powdered sugar (1.5 lbs of it) and some lemon juice. We also threw in a dash of vanilla extract, and a little bit of water, to thin the mix down a little. It’s a good thing we did, too…the icing was next to impossible to stir before we even added the third box. So much so that we broke one of the rubber spatulas.

Robert and I each filled one of the piping bags, making a bit of a mess along the way (me, more than him). Mom filled the piping bag that David was going to use. She, of course, didn’t make a mess.

Alvin helps with the icing

Then, we set out bowls of our candy decorations: sno-caps, skittles, plain m&ms, jujubees (which tasted perfumy), nerds, several different types of sprinkles, fruit snacks, Haribo raspberry gummies, and red hots.

Robert’s Turkey

My favorite of the turkeys was Robert’s. I couldn’t stop laughing. Mine was positively spartan, compared to the others. Robert used a ton of icing for his, and then proceeded to eat the leftovers out of the piping bag. David used the least icing, while still having a fully decked out turkey.

The gingerbread was a lot softer and tastier than I expected it to be. And, yes, at least two of the turkeys have already been nibbled on.