Such a feast we had! I’m still so full that my socks felt tight when I pulled them on this morning. My, oh my, such a lot of great food.
Deciding what to do about Thanksgiving wasn’t straightforward this year. First and foremost: CoVid is still among us. Fiercely so. Maybe just the two of us and the daughter we see often. That would be pleasant, of course, but not particularly festive. Sigh. I do like to fuss over Thanksgiving.
Then our neighbors’ plans changed; they would be in town after all. “If we do Thanksgiving,” I asked, “would you come?” “Yes,” they replied, with enthusiasm. “We’ll help.” And the next neighbors could come, too. “What shall we bring?” they asked. All right, seven people! Seven is a festive gathering.*
My husband and I decided to scale down the usual Thanksgiving-for-the-multitudes menu, given that there would be fewer guests than usual. This plan promptly fell by the wayside when our friend Cindy made a flying visit to drop off a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie, still warm from her oven. “Happy Thanksgiving!” she said, before driving off.
Our daughter and I were working on the meal and laughing on Wednesday, when we noticed our neighbor Tanya in our back yard raking our leaves. My husband and I had raked and raked and filled all our yard-waste bags and bought more and filled them, too. There was a great line of leaf bags at the curb awaiting pickup by the city. Trees in autumn, though, keep right on dropping leaves, and Tanya was raking our new ones and stuffing them in bags.
Glancing out at the yard again later, we saw Tanya had moved on to mowing our lawn. Not only that, but our other neighbor, Todd, was out there also, with his lawn mower. Toward the end, our daughter reported, it looked like Tanya and Todd were having lawn mower races. I know who won: we did. We have the best neighbors imaginable. Not only did they do us a very real favor, they had the additional grace to make it look like fun.
Turkey Day arrived, and all was in readiness. Table set, kitchen fragrant with wonderful smells, sage prominent among them. Our daughter had picked it fresh, and it was fabulously aromatic. It was also the starring ingredient in one of the appetizers. The guests arrived en masse and in fine array. And they came bearing gifts. A massive squash dish. Not just one cheese, but four. Not just roasted Brussels sprouts but a pear crisp to bake during dinner, and ice cream for the top** and cranberry ginger mead to sip with it.
We ate hors d’oeuvres and chatted while putting the finishing touches on dinner. Guests checked out the family room, which is at present stripped to the studs, although some nice new insulation has gone in. They especially liked the ersatz fire Don had laid in the fireplace grate, which featured artfully arranged odds and ends of pink insulation.
Arranging the food on the table presented a logistical challenge. It wouldn’t fit. So I put some on the buffet, and it still wouldn’t fit. A shell game of rearranging later, and we were ready for grace. “For good food, good friends, good fellowship, thy holy name be praised.”
We set to with a will, and everything was delicious. There was so much on offer that it wasn’t possible even to try some of everything, and that was before dessert. It was a great feast, with great company. I’m sure glad we decided to pare down the menu this year. Happy Thanksgiving.
*My mom might entertain a different opinion, as the mother of five. When we were kids and the family was in the middle of a month-long camping trip, we all trooped into a restaurant and the hostess asked how many in our party. Mom responded, “Seven, and it’s not a party.” Our dear mom was unfailingly patient and calm and kind. This was, quite possibly, the edgiest thing I ever heard her say. It was also my first inkling that Mom might not be on as much of a vacation as the rest of us. It was the merest flicker on her part. No one else heard it, and life went on as before.
** Thank goodness for the pear crisp. That brought our dessert options to five, as our daughter and I had prepared strawberries romanoff and crème brulee and, of course, we had Cindy’s pies. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum!
26 November 2021