Thanksgiving

As far back as I can remember this has been my favorite holiday. There are no presents, minimal decorations, and only as much preparation as you are interested in doing. The whole goal of the day is to be with people who are dear to you and take stock of all the good things that have come to you over the year.

I have so much to be thankful for this year that it makes my head spin. What could have been a truly awful time has turned out so differently. As this day arrives I’m well on the route to recovery after surgery with a good likelihood that I’m completely done with this disease. More important than that, it is so clear to me now how surrounded I am by the kindest and most loving family, friends, and neighbors that it could be possible to have. I can’t think of anything more that I could ever need. As the time passes I will hold on to this year. No matter what comes in the future, I hope that the knowledge that I ever had a year as wonderful as this will carry me through.

I am in the middle of Thanksgiving preparations. I have hosted the dinner for my family for several years but this year we’ll be having it at John & Jennie’s house. That’s a relief. I’m not quite up to the task this year. Tom will be on hand to help get ready and to make the gravy. That’s a skill that continues to elude me.

We have a few offbeat Thanksgiving items that we roll out every year. I’ll include a photo of them here. You’ll see a crepe paper honeycomb fruit bowl. Pat bought that decades ago and it was always featured on the piano in our house at Thanksgiving. It has seen much better days. Still, looks aren’t everything. There are also some recently added paper pineapples and a turkey, plus a stuffed turkey that somehow ended up in the sacred holiday items collection.

My favorite set of items is our collection of poultry seasonings. The year after my mother died we were cleaning out the cabinet above the oven in her house and found all these containers of poultry seasoning. Evidently she bought one every year, used it for the holidays, stowed it in the cabinet, and forgot about it. In the 11 years that have passed since we found them, we’ve bought a new container of poultry seasoning every year. We label each one with the year that we bought it and we line them up in some place of honor during the meal. It’s a goofy tradition but it’s a tradition now and I can’t imagine Thanksgiving without it.

Oh, and while I was taking that photo, Sam the cat became interested in all the items on the table. Here she is investigating. She seems to be doing well, by the way. Thank you to all who were worried about her. Yet another reason to be grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!