Thanksgiving 2012

We were expecting to have close to 20 people come over for Thanksgiving this year.  I love when we have a full house, and this year especially since it’s the first one without my dad.  We decided that we should probably cook a ham in addition to the turkey so that we had enough food to feed everyone, plus enough leftovers.

I got up at 7:30 so that I could start prepping the Turkey by 8 and then put it in the oven by 9.  I start by browning the sausage and making the stuffing.  I stuff the turkey and wrap it in foil.  At 8:30 Chris went upstairs to take a shower and I turn the oven on.  We have touch screen dual convection ovens made by LG.  It sings to us when it’s done pre-heating and when the timer goes off.  I LOVE our ovens.

About 2 min later after turning the oven on it makes a not-so-singing beeping sound and says ‘Error F-9.  Call the serviceman.’  ON THANKSGIVING.  WITH A RAW STUFFED TURKEY SITTING ON MY COUNTER.

I frantically start touching the touch screen everywhere and it doesn’t respond at all.  I open the top oven and look inside – nice cold oven.  I open the bottom oven and look inside – nice cold oven.  You know because surely looking inside will make the error go away? I look from the turkey back to the death error screen and back to the turkey.  I can feel the panic rising inside.  I HAVE 20 PEOPLE COMING OVER TO EAT DINNER IN 7 HOURS!!!  I have to cook a turkey and a ham and my ovens aren’t working.  How does this happen ON THANKSGIVING??!!?  There is no way a serviceman will get here in time to fix my ovens.

I race upstairs and stand in the master bathroom.  I attempt to stay calm and tell Chris “I am really, really trying to not panic, but the oven says error F-9 and I don’t know what to do.  It’s Thanksgiving and we have 20 people coming over and I already stuffed the turkey.”  He just says “It’s okay.  I’ll be right down.”

As I’m going back downstairs I realize I have the internet!!  And Google answers all of my questions, so surely it can fix my oven.  I Google F-9 error dual ovens LG and Google tells me that it’s an error with the door latch system, which may need to be reset or replaced.  Same issue though – call the serviceman.  However the second hit is from an owner that said they flipped the breaker to reset the power and their oven worked again.  I finally start to breathe normally – maybe we can fix this after all.

Chris comes downstairs and I tell him what I read and he immediately goes out to flip the switch.  And we attempt to turn the lower oven on again.  It preheats just fine and sings to us at the end.  I am so, so relieved to hear my oven sing again and I put the turkey in at 9, right on time.

But remember the whole 20 people are coming over so we’re cooking a ham too?  Around 1:30 I turn the upper oven on and a couple minutes later the error comes back and shuts both ovens off.  MY TURKEY STILL HAS ANOTHER 1.5 HOURS TO COOK.  And I need to cook the ham too.

So I go flip the breaker and try again.  Same error.  Flip the breaker again and decide to try the basic oven setting instead of the convection setting thinking maybe that will help.  It doesn’t give me an error F-9, but it won’t heat the oven either.  I call Chris (he’s on his way to get his grandma).  He tells me to call my friend (who is on her way over to my house for dinner) to ask to borrow her oven.  I cannot fathom how I’m going to cook in two different places so I’m thinking we will skip the ham just won’t have leftover turkey.

Then I realize that the ham is already cooked and just needs to be reheated.  AND GUESS WHAT WE HAVE THAT IS MADE EXACTLY FOR REHEATING THINGS??  A MICROWAVE.  So I cut the ham up and microwaved it, which worked just fine.

So Google and a microwave saved us from having takeout on Thanksgiving.  Technology.  It’s awesome.

And we had an incredibly delicious dinner, everything turned out so well and tasted so good.  I accepted help when it was offered and despite going for a run that morning and cooking all day I wasn’t nearly as exhausted as I have been in prior years.  I credit all of that to being truly in shape. 

I am so happy to have spent the holidays with my inlaws, my siblings, and my friends.  It was a really awesome holiday.