For years my mother made a "practise turkey" a couple of weeks before
Thanksgiving! After the first glorious meal of roast turkey (usually
served with wild rice), we made stock from the carcas and turned the
leftover turkey meat into turkey pies for the freezer -- wonderful to
have on hand in the winter, and nobody was tired of turkey when
Thanksgiving came. Between the "practise turkey" and turkey
pie-making, we would polish the silver and assemble the fine dishes so
Thanksgiving was not eclipsed by the practise bird!