“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 619 (Thanksgiving Day)

Supper!

While I appreciate the efforts of organizations to post helpful information, sometimes the timing feels way off. For example, this morning, Thanksgiving morning, at 9:04, an email came in from AAA. The subject line was about Getting Ready for Black Friday Deals, which is timely, but the other 99 articles in the newsletter were much less timely. It was full of Thanksgiving recipes and cooking tips for Thanksgiving dinner which feel late by at least several days. 

Depending upon the planned dinner time and size of the bird, the planning likely well underway and the turkey is quite possibly already in the oven at 9:00 am. I can’t imagine many cooks are looking up dinner menus and cooking instructions this morning, and if they are, I wish them luck with no stores open.

Maybe Mom and I are just neurotic level planners, but I doubt it. I think we do a normal amount of planning and executing for meals and events. On my end, the stuffing for today (ok, dressing) was made on Tuesday. Mom cooked the turkey Wednesday so it just needed a quick warmup today. Thanks to planning, I was able to spend a stress-free morning sitting on the couch, drinking coffee and reading email and laughing at newsletters about major Thanksgiving dinner preparations that was delivered just hours before dinner.

As for our dinner, it was a small group (four of us), and the food was delicious. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, dressing, cranberry sauce, and gravy. This menu is dramatically scaled down from the menu of my youth when it also included toss salad, one or two Jello salads, sweet potato, corn, green beans, pearl onions, and probably fourteen other things I have forgotten. Of course, back then, the house was bigger, the table was bigger, and there were 12 or more of us, elbow to elbow seated around it. That’s before people grew up and moved away and/or passed away and any other number of things.

Before dinner it was relaxing in the living room with cheese and crackers, and after dinner it was pies. All the hits were represented. There was apple, pumpkin, and mincemeat. Throughout the day the TV selections bounced all over the place – parade, football pre-game show, a fragment of an old western, a sliver of a Hallmark show, over to football. 

Scrabble!

Post pie, then there was a very old-fashioned split. The men stayed in the living room with the football game, we ladies retired to the kitchen table for a couple games of Scrabble, Winston slept in his bed, and everyone was happy doing something they found enjoyable. 

When it was time to head home, I ended up with the turkey carcass, some sliced turkey, and pieces of three types of pie that equaled half a pie. The carcass has been simmering in the soup pot for a couple hours now and the house smells better than any candle I might have lurking in a drawer. It was a light supper of slivers of pie with a nice red wine. 

Overall, it was pretty much a perfect day. Kudos to the hosts, the chef, and the guests. It was a five star day, and for that, I'm thankful.