Cornucopia

December 04, 2015

Thanksgiving is about sharing widely our gratitude; I like that and I can get behind that. It's too early to really start a tradition of re-examining the premise of Thanksgiving with our children, but for now we keep it simple. A day of thanks.

I like that we actually say a kind of prayer before dinner and this year we all held hands. The truest gold of our Thanksgiving is probably Addie's homemade fresh cranberry sauce, spicy or not-so. We tried three different tofurkeys this year. My mom and Jack were with us for dinner, we had crayons and kraft paper on the kids' table (which still didn't last long.) and a nice visit with Darin's mom during the afternoon. Four little sprites kept our heads spinning as usual. It was a delightful day from start to finish.

This year Addie hosted a little brunch at her house in Camino. Every year we want to watch the parade but none of us have cable so we have a hard time finding it. It doesn't seem to stream live online. Addie has been obsessed with this dilemma and finally figured out a way to get access to television programs live through some kind of expatriot program, but unfortunately it didn't stream properly and we only got to see small bits of the parade. But we watched funny videos and Addie and Art made quiche and there was a sprinkling of snow outside and of course the girls wanted to go out and romp in it and eat a fair share of it. So the morning was perfect.

looking out at snow!

world's tiniest snowman.

melting already.

Back at home, I put Darin in charge of making jar lanterns with Toot while Polly napped. I worked on two different sweet potato dishes and the three tofurkeys, and then Noni came over to play awhile.

And around five, everyone else started to arrive, we colored and played with the kids and prepared our feast and drank whiskey-and-coke (darin) and beer and wine (the rest of us.) I wore my mom's embroidered dress from the 70s, which has been my Thanksgiving dress in the past, one of my treasures.

kitchen crew.

favorite.

this didn't last another two minutes. they basically sat on our laps.

My mom had a cold but was so sweet to help with all the dishes and clean up. Joey and Em had already gone but Addie, Art, Darin and I bundled up the kids and took our little lanterns and headed down the hill and around the neighborhood for a little lantern walk. A couple of our neighbors were out front having a smoke and greeted us. They called out "trick or treat?" laughingly, and then actually went inside and brought out a big bowl of candy for kids and adults alike to choose from, with warm hollers of "Happy Thanksgiving" as we trundled our way down the hill.