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| I should not laugh at this, and yet. |
It's sort of funny how something you plan for weeks in advance comes and goes so quickly. The family has left, the kitchen is sort of cleaned up (the dishwasher can only go so fast), and there's hardly a leftover in the house, although really, who could eat anyway? Oh, right... the girls. Johanna is munching on cold stuffing as we speak and trying to negotiate how many raw cranberries she can eat. Abby found a box of candy from Halloween and had a piece of that, for some reason, instead of leftover pie. Kids.
I have to say that this Thanksgiving went fairly smoothly. For one thing, I did not start any new books. Been there, done that. (Hello, Thanksgiving 2008!) For another, I made a list of all the chores I needed to complete OR ELSE. I was able to prep my food, clean the house and make sure that I had enough silverware. Last night we did a last sweep of the house, cleaning everything except the bathrooms (well, really, what's the point when Johanna still needs to brush her teeth? She has no aim). This morning all we had to do was get up, toss the turkey in the oven, and chill.
Unless you're Eric. In which case you also washed the windows inside and out, vacuumed up the ash around the woodstove, got out the folding chairs from the garage and dusted them off, emptied all the trash, did a load of laundry so Abby could wear that one new shirt of hers, and put the leaf in the table. He probably did other stuff too that I just didn't see. I was positively exhausted, watching him rush around from my spot on the couch.
And here I thought we had it licked last night.
Anyway, I did some careful turkey math and concluded we needed to get our 18 pound bird into the oven at 7:30 a.m. if we wanted it out by noon. The package directions said it'd take about 4 1/2 hours. The package directions are lying liars who lie, because it was done at 10:45. I didn't even have time to baste the thing. So Eric carved it and put it on a platter, and we just tossed it in the oven about a half-hour before everyone arrived to warm it up. While he did that, I tackled the gravy and got the dishes clean. And made coffee and spiced cider. It took him a really long time to carve, and I wasn't sure if it was because he was being very careful with the especially sharp turkey knife, or if he was just tired from his self-imposed morning chore list. (You've got to pace yourself on these big days.)
Abby wanted set the table, and even though we usually do it cafeteria-style, I figured, why not? I inherited 8 china place settings from my Grandma M. this summer, and this was their inaugural dinner at my house. Abby carefully arranged each setting, and then made a darling little arrangement for the middle of the table from things she found in our yard (who knew roses were still out?). The only glasses we own are pints collected from various breweries, so that is what we used.
It all made me very happy.
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| The pint glasses really complete the look, don't you think? And also, that's my only tablecloth. |
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| Flower arranging is not a skill Abby got from me. Thank heavens for Grandma W. |
And then all that was left to do was wait.
Two weeks ago I thought there would be 8 of us, and then last week the number jumped to 18, and then this morning the final count came in at 20. Ironically, that is EXACTLY how many plates I have, including Grandma's china.
My parents were first to arrive. My mommy brought me my very own baking dish of homemade stuffing "for later." I hid it in the back of the refrigerator. I do not think that was even remotely wrong. Next came my father-in-law and a special guest, a visiting priest from the Congo who used to spend summers here. He hasn't been able to get back for a few years, and he could not believe how tall Abby had gotten--he used to pack her outside after Mass when she was like three or four. And hey, this was his very first Thanksgiving celebration. I had to wonder what it all looked like to him. Hopefully more like family fun and less like pointless gluttony.
Next came a whole slew of people, so that really swelled the numbers. I had started to put things out, and then everyone added their contributions, and it was like, wow. We are totally not going to starve. I made cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and apples, "the raspberry salad," and the turkey and gravy (der?). My mom brought homemade stuffing, pumpkin pie and whipped cream, and my mother-in-law brought a three-bean salad, mashed potatoes and cranberry-oatmeal cookies. My sister-in-law Elaine brought a veggie tray and pecan pies, and my sister-in-law Liz brought a fruit salad and drinks. My niece Jessica brought dinner rolls and a collards dish (well, her husband is from Georgia), and my nephew Sam came in with half of a Hubbard squash that he'd roasted and was all like, "I brought a squash!" And everyone who encountered it was like, um, what is that? Except it turned out to be the surprise hit of the dinner, which pleased Sam ever so much.
Anyway, we said grace and then, after a little persuasion, got the people to start lining up and filling their plates. No one wants to go first, I guess. Everything was so delicious. Our living room was crammed full of people, some eating on Grandma's china and some eating off my regular dinner plates. We had people at the table and people on couches, and even people in Abby's room, where Eric had set up a "man cave" of sorts--his brother Bub brought a TV so they could watch football, and Abby set up a card table. We ate until we were groaning, and then my mom, Elaine and I put out the desserts. So that started up the crazy once again.
The cousins ended up in Johanna's room. She put on a fashion show for us, with the other girls serving as fashion consultants. We heard a lot of laughter coming out of that room, and seeing Abby's Facebook posts later proved that they were indeed having a good time.
While some of the boys watched football and the cousins played Johanna Fashion Show, the rest of us sat in the living room and chatted. It's nice to have a day where the focus is just on being thankful and enjoying each other's company.
And P.S. I am not buying a single, solitary thing on Black Friday. Not even a cup of coffee. You know why? Because Black Friday is dumb. Take that, The Man! I am immune to your commercialism.
But I digress. It's still November, and it's still Thanksgiving, and I have a lot to be thankful for (I feel a list coming on):
- Eric
- Abby
- Johanna
- The life we lead as a family
- Did I mention Eric?
- My parents
- My in-laws
- All the people who traveled to spend Thanksgiving with us
- And all the people who love us
- For my new job that isn't so new anymore
- And the friends I've made there
- Actually, for all of our friends
- That the girls are happy and healthy
- All the artwork that Johanna makes for me
- And all the stories Abby writes
- That the girls know my grandparents
- And that they at least remember one of Eric's
- That our families get along
- And actually enjoy seeing each other
- And look forward to seeing each other again
And also for my dishwasher, now that I think about it, as I can see that its third load of the day is clean and waiting to be put away. And then refilled. It sounds like Eric and Abby are going to watch a movie, which means Johanna and I will be hanging out together. Or maybe taking a nap. No, wait, this is Johanna we're talking about... definitely no naps.
Alanis Morissette, "Thank You." Because it's Thanksgiving! "How about getting off of these antibiotics?" I've always liked that line, along with, "Thank you frailty, thank you consequence, thank you silence." I don't know if I'm really thankful for disillusionment or terror, if you want to know the truth, and I've never been one for unabashedly bawling my eyes out. But you know, there's just a lot in this life that is awesome. And I'm very thankful for that.
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