Thanksgiving ~ 2007

I did not cook a turkey today. And only tonight does that feel -so- strange. There is no turkey carcass in a stockpot simmering on the stove tonight. No scent of poultry seasoning – onion – garlic – sage – rosemary and thyme. There’s not even a hint, tonight, that those foods have ever been prepared in this old farmhouse. There is no mess tonight. There are no left-over’s in the fridge tonight . Our table didn’t look like this today and there were no tryptophan induced naps this afternoon. And tonight: No turkey – dressing – mashed potatoes – sweet potato casserole – jell-O salad – green beans – stuffing – gravy – cornbread . On what would’ve/should’ve been my thirtieth Thanksgiving turkey dinner preparation/presentation, another menu played out instead.

Sometime last week, Hannah thought maybe we could (gasp) do something totally radical this year and have a brunch instead of traditional Thanksgiving dinner… well, that resonated well around our home and we all agreed it was a fun plan. Well, it was a good plan. I wouldn’t say it was as delicious as some might think a traditional Thanksgiving dinner is, but it was fine. Different and fine. My husband, for one, was thankful. Bacon. Yeeeeessssssss. So, maybe no more bacon for a loooooooooong time.

But tonight, no left-over’s. For whatever reason, it was hard for me to get everything prepared and set out on time for our brunch this morning… I was close, but somewhat slow and the combination of different dishes was difficult to prepare simultaneously. Though I actually had made small quantities / samplers of each dish. We had french toast puff, cinnamon rolls, aebleskivers, waffles, cheese & ham, veggie-sausage, bacon, dried fruits and nuts, fruit platters, juice and coffeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Notice I didn’t say we don’t have any pumpkin pie. We actually do have lots of pumpkin pie(s!).

It is Thanksgiving after all. 😉

Never fails: The paper was filled with ads! – ads! – and more ads! today.

Everything I never wanted before today! Everything I was content to live without throughout the past year – throughout my whole lifetime – was displayed in living colour pictures here in our home this evening and as suddenly as some of the pages were opened and turned, I found myself wanting needing things I didn’t even know I wanted or needed! I found myself suddenly contemplating getting up a 4am for the doorbuster sale of a lifetime. I found myself rationalizing that some of these so-worth-it items were n-e-c-e-s-s-i-t-i-e-s I just had to have!!!

O. But wait a minute. I don’t really want to get up at 4. And, besides, I don’t exactly have the money for those necessities. And… wait. I didn’t even know I needed – I didn’t even know I wanted those things. Wait… some things I didn’t even know existed before tonight. So… tonight I am figuring: if I didn’t need it this morning – if I didn’t want it this morning and if I didn’t even know of the existence of some of this stuff this morning… why in the world would I lose a minute of delicious sleep fretting over whether I could manage to get up at 4 in the morning and scurry out in the freezing cold to be there for the chance to be one the first hundred customers for this year’s fabulous doorbuster items (I didn’t previously know I wanted).

I don’t usually get a chance to have a picture with our oldest son…
So here’s one… a bear hug.