I was actually surprised that I only have one-half of a rough day getting ready. Wednesday started out rather wild. The kids were all off school, so I had to manage them as well as get some of my tasks done.
One thing I planned to do was prepare the stock for the gravy by simmering the turkey giblets and neck with vegetables for a couple hours. I also had to prepare a brine and soak the turkey for 24 hours. I opened up the bird and dug out the neck. Then I flipped it over (sounds easy, but a 19-lb bird doesn't maneuver easily) to find... no giblets. I dug and pried and fished around with hands and tongs, but there was nothing but a piece of aorta (I've learned a little something about anatomy from being in the hospital so much!).
After half an hour spent armpit deep in turkey, I finally decided that I hadn't missed something. They really weren't there.
Then I turned around.
Anna had gotten out the paints earlier and I decided to let her make a mess and paint. I put it all away...sort of... before I dug into the turkey. However, Sam emerged before I had hidden all the evidence, and immediately begged to paint too. So while I was wrestling with the poultry, they were painting. 
Anna had painted 1/3 of her kitchen chair red. She had painted her face red. She had painted her hands and arms and most of the tablecloth (vinyl, fortunately).
They both had contributed to painting the bottle of cleaning spray I had left out from cleaning up the previous paint mess. So I had to get dirty to clean up. I had to grab the still-wet paint-covered spray bottle and tackle it all.
Anna got into the spirit, and proceeded to pull out at least 15 Kandoo wipes from the bathroom and wipe the same 4 square inches of her chair, just like mommy. It was so cute, but I got really annoyed when I discovered she kept getting new wipes out!Once that got cleaned up, I had to make the brine, find a container large enough to hold the turkey, and pour 10 gallons of liquid over the turkey without making a huge mess. I managed in the end by putting the bird in a large trash bag in a cooler. I could pull the bag over the bird tightly enough to ensure it was fully soaked, and then cover it with ice to stay cold.
While I was wrestling with the bird and the stockpot full of brine, Sam apparently had a slight bout of diarrhea in which he was unable to get to the toilet on time. Fortunately, Julie arrived while I cleaned him up, so I had an extra pair of eyes and hands preventing further catasrophes.
After that, everything really went very smoothly, aside from Anna and Elli catching a cold. We had beautiful weather, spent a lot of time outside enjoying it, and had a great visit with both sides of the family. My parents arrived Thursday afternoon and Dad immediately threw our turkey on the grill for the afternoon. Within 20 minutes the yard and house were filled with the aroma of cooking turkey. I actually got to sit down a bit that day and enjoyed working together with my mom and sister in a kitchen that was actually big enough! Everything turned out well and we enjoyed an evening of coffee, dessert, and Yahtzee after the kids went to bed. I can't imagine anything going better, despite the missing giblets and painting party.
