I've never had fried turkey, but I don't like fried food. I love the smell of a turkey roasting in the oven. I put apples and oranges in mine with a spice mixture/olive oil/butter under the skin. By the time it's done, I'm salivating. I've brined mine several times and it's also good.
I think it's the smells that activate my happy holiday feelings. When I was very young, my mother always got our Christmas decorations out on the night of Thanksgiving. The first thing we put up was the nativity. Hers was from her grandmother and smelled like straw. A few days before Thanksgiving, we'd go into the woods and cut down three trees. Two were for our outdoor nativity scene with some of the branches used for our indoor one. The best was the tree for the living room. I wish I had pictures of it. My mother and I would stay up very late getting all the candles down from the third floor storage. She put blue electric candles in all the windows and they were so beautiful. My grandmother would order all kinds of confections from NYC and we'd make "giving baskets" for people she knew in our village who would appreciate something special. We put breads, nuts, candy, fudge, and some fancy candy from the city. We'd deliver it on the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Every time I smell a turkey roasting, those memories come back.
I've been baking all day. I also need to make more pumpkin bread for the food pantry. People seem to really appreciate things that are made from scratch with love.
Don't forget to stop, take a deep breath, give thanks, and rest up. It's coming up fast.