Ahhhh Thanksgiving. This is my favorite holiday. A time for us all to take a moment and count our blessings and be thankful for the wonderful things in our lives. I am thankful for so many things. My family, friends, kitties, health, employment…..the list goes on and on. Even in the midst of hard times, I am blessed and thankful.
I like to cook Thanksgiving dinner . ‘Like’ and ‘cook’ are two words I don’t often use together in one sentence. My husband and daughter look forward to Thanksgiving because they are aware that Turkey Day is the one day of the year when they are guaranteed a home cooked meal…..from me. Usually it’s fend for yourself night or macaroni ‘surprise’ night – we never know what the ‘surprise’ is going to be…..usually it’s whatever is in the fridge on the random day I decide to surprise my family with macaroni.
I have come a long way since my first Thanksgiving meal – if you could call it that. At least now I remove the bag of gizzards and giblets from the turkey before I put it in the oven….. for 6 hours. Most everything is usually served hot now – with one oven time management is crucial. I no longer make a dozen sweet potatoes when only one person eats them. I now dice up the cranberry sauce and serve it on a nice dish rather than plopping it on the dish right out of the can. (get the visual?) My gravy has taken many years to perfect and it does not look like greasy brown water anymore – yeah! I’m sure we all have had a dinner debacle at some time or another. Years ago my family would go to my in-laws for thanksgiving dinner. One year my sister made a beautiful pecan pie. As my brother in law began to cut slices for everyone, he quickly learned that a butter knife was not doing the trick. He quietly picked up a serrated edged knife. After a few forceful motions back and forth, the pie was left without a scratch. He looked up, smiled and asked if anyone had a chainsaw.
My biggest joy on Thanksgiving is looking around the table and enjoying my family. Even though it takes hours and hours and hours to prepare and 15 minutes to gobble up, it is so worth it to me.
Now I have to work on perfecting Christmas cookies. Last year I asked my 19 year old step son to make Christmas cookies with me. He loves sugar cookies so I bought all the fixins and was prepared to spend the afternoon with him. I was really happy to do this as he was home on military leave and it would be a great bonding time. I bought the sugar cookie mix pre-made so all we had to do was slice them, cut out Christmas figures and decorate them. Apparently you aren’t supposed to put the cookie cutters through 2 or 3 inches of raw dough. Once the 13 minute timer went off and we pulled out the cookies – we had the biggest snowman cookie imaginable! We had the biggest belly laugh ever! My daughter came home with her friend and made the most beautiful perfect sugar cookies – I wondered why she needed a rolling pin………
Enjoy your Thanksgiving and wear your big pants. Much peace and love…….