Wootini’s Weekly Animal Crossing Diary 11/28/20

Dear Diary,

This week was Turkey Day, which is enough activity by itself, but there was still plenty of other things that happened, so let’s not waste any more time!

I was feeling a little blue, so I let K.K. Slider pick a tune based on my mood. And “K.K. Ballad” certainly fit the bill. I honestly thought I already had this one but when I took the bootleg I gave him over to a record player, I was surprised to find out I didn’t! Score!

I’ve been collecting a handful of maple leaves every day and storing them in case I get more recipes but all the balloons I shoot down have either furniture (I literally got two cushions in a row!) or supplies like clay. I did get lucky early in the week when I got a recipe for a maple leaf umbrella. It’s cute, but it’s not furniture. And I never saw any mushroom furniture so those things are just stinking up my storage right now.

I was stunned that Keaton finally decided to move away because I’d been ignoring him for ages. I don’t know why it took him so long to get the hint. Heh. Although honestly, he wasn’t that bad, really. He had his moments. The problem was that I wished him luck in his future endeavors without remembering that Turkey Day was coming up and he would move out a couple days before. So I felt kind of rude kicking him out before the big party, but I guess he can enjoy Turkey Day wherever he ends up… right?

My friend, Petey, was showing off his adorable pink dollhouse and after I expressed my delight, he mailed me one as a present! How sweet is that? And isn’t it just darling?

I found a book laying in the grass and went around looking for its owner. Usually when you find a bag or a book and return it to its owner, they just thank you and give you a reward. Back in the last town where I lived, the missing items were always something interesting, like a bag to keep rare crystal figurines of dolphins or some such randomness. Here, it’s kind of boring. But this time, Genji said the book was his workout journal, which was a detail I wasn’t expecting to hear. It’s not as bizarre and random as the stuff I’d find in the last town, but it’s something, I guess…

Turkey Day finally arrived, and I was slightly dreading it because I didn’t enjoy it in my last town because it was kind of a pain in the butt to get all the ingredients Franklin needed for his dishes. But here, it wasn’t so bad. You’ll notice I also changed my layered T-shirt to a nice jacket to dress up a bit for the feast… even if no one else really did!

The ingredients Franklin needed were relatively easy to obtain. Three manila clams for his clam chowder, an orange and white pumpkin for his pumpkin pie, a round mushroom and a mussel for his seafood gratin, and a sea bass and a dab for his fish meuniére. Some took a little longer to obtain, like the mussel and the dab, which involved a bit of diving and fishing, but it wasn’t as bad as it used to be. In no time at all, I had all the ingredients found and Franklin had all the dishes cooked for everyone! And for my trouble, he gave me a Turkey Day rug, wall, flooring, and a cornucopia.

Then Franklin said he had an idea to improve his dishes with slightly different ingredients, but didn’t give me anything more than that. I had to go around the island and check in on the others who weren’t at the plaza because they were home cooking. If you gave them an ingredient they needed, they’d give you a little tip as to how to improve certain dishes. Once I had it all worked out, I went in search of the alternative ingredients to get even more rewards.

Most weren’t too bad to locate, but the fish meuniére required a barred knifejaw, which took me forever to catch! And worse, at the beginning of all this, I caught two of them and sold them off to clear space so I could go diving for mussels. If I’d known, I never would’ve sold them both. That’ll teach me! But in the end, I had all four improved dishes for everyone to enjoy. And they applauded by… waving sparkles at the table? Um, okay… whatever!

As I helped provide special ingredients for Franklin to improve his recipes, he gave me some more Turkey Day stuff. And in the end, my final reward was a batch of DIY recipes for the stuff I’d been gifted as well as some others. So I was able to craft a Turkey Day table and chair so I could set up a little Turkey Day room in my house. It’s not a whole lot of furniture, and only fills maybe half the room, so I’m hoping that’s because next year, Franklin will have new items and new recipes to give out. It hasn’t been a full year on the island yet but it would be nice if each year there was something new about each of the holidays. Because otherwise it’s like all the other towns where I’ve lived and after you’ve done it once and gotten all the furniture, there’s no reason to bother again. Takes the fun out of the holidays!

At the very end of the week, things had relaxed and I could go back to just doing my normal thing. I did notice that the Friday after Turkey Day, there were still mushrooms to pick but the leaves had stopped falling. Of course, there’s only a few days left of mushrooms, too. Which means only a few days more to maybe get recipes, which is clearly not going to happen. Oh well, I guess that’s something to look forward to next year! I did also happen to run into Gulliver and managed to help him fix his phone so he could call for help. Wonder what he’ll give me as a reward this time?