“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.”
My mother used to wake up around five to make the stuffing then she’d stuff the turkey and put it in the oven. I’d wake up to the aroma of turkey wafting through the house. We four kids would settle in front of the TV, still in our pajamas, and watch the Thanksgiving Day parade. We’d snack on tangerines, mixed nuts still in the shell and M&M’s. We’d fight over using the nucracker. Dinner was usually around two, and it was always pretty much the same menu: turkey, my mother’s wonderful stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce with the decorative ridges from the can, peas, asparagus in the can for my father and a roving vegetable, a different one each year. Dessert was always pie: an apple and a lemon meringue and sometimes a blueberry cobbler. The kitchen was small and always hot from the turkey cooking. The windows were steamed. My dad always wanted the drumstick, and the rest of us usually chose the white meat. When we got older, we’d also eat the dark. I remember making the well in my mashed potatoes for the gravy and trying hard not to let it overflow the bank of potatoes. Our plates were groaning and so were we after dinner. My dad watched football, and the rest of us sometimes played a game or just sat around talking. My mother always cleaned up after dinner.
Today I am thankful for so many things. I am thankful for the love of my family and friends, and I am thankful for a head filled with incredible memories and for a childhood which had wonder and joy. Marty Barrett will always have my thanks. It was he who infected me with Barrett’s disease, my envy for his trips to England when he visited his grandmother. When I was eleven, I vowed to out-travel Marty, and I’m betting I have. I am thankful for all of you who have become my friends even though we have never met in person. I wish you all the blessings of the day and a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: holidays, home, M&M's, Mashed potato, Stuffing, Thanksgiving, Turkey
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November 24, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Happy Thanksgiving, Kat!
Thank you for your blog and your words of wisdom.
November 24, 2011 at 9:10 pm
Happy Thanksgiving, Caryn!
Thank you for being a friend and loyal reader of Coffee!
November 24, 2011 at 12:45 pm
I am amazed how similar the holiday is celebrated across the country. Macy’s parade starts the day and it always ends with a parade of food and football games. I am a fan of the dark meat, although turkeys today have been breed for very little, plain canned cranberry sauce, any kind of stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, any vegetables especially asparagus and any pie except pumpkin.
Thanks for posting Arlo Guthrie’s Thanksgiving classic “Alice’s Restaurant” and your wonderful thought provoking posts throughout the year. I look forward to reading your blog daily.
Have a great holiday!
November 24, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Bob.
I think this holiday is the only one centered on the day itself, on family and on enjoying a meal together. We had all the traditional foods and a few more to add a bit of glitz to the meal. We had pumpkin pie, but we also had chocolate cream-the favorite by far.
Thank you, Bob, for coming by every day. You are among the friends who give me the incentive to write every day.
November 24, 2011 at 12:53 pm
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1VFwlGhA-k&w=640&h=360]
November 24, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Boris,
I would never have thought a turkey could cook so quickly-thanks for this!
November 24, 2011 at 12:55 pm
We really need a holiday like this over here 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving!
Christer.
November 24, 2011 at 2:09 pm
In the US we celebrate Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November because President Roosevelt wanted to increase the holiday buying season during the depression. In Canada they celebrate in October during the harvest time. In Europe, they don’t get it. What we are really celebrating is being thankful for the religious freedom that the Pilgrims found in the new world in the 1600s.
November 24, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Bob,
I think we began to be thankful for the freedom of religion, but now we are thankful for so much more. I always think of family today, those still here and those who have passed. For them I am most thankful.
November 24, 2011 at 9:13 pm
Thank you, Christer!
I love Thanksgiving!!
November 24, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Kat, you have yourself a great day. OK?
I am grateful for your internet friendship and your blog, and also the fact that you respond to anybody who drops you a note. It’s something really special.
I worked a the radio station this morning and will then sit down to turkey with friends in the afternoon. Between the bird and a lack of sleep, I hope I make it to the early evening. I should have no problems sleeping! 🙂
My warmest wishes to ya, waving from Jersey – – –
(P.S. – – Ham and cheese for our Haley may have to wait this Sunday night. Looks like their is a lot of turkey in that dog’s future!)
November 24, 2011 at 9:18 pm
Coleen,
It was a great day with a feast fit for the gods and a heavenly dessert! We even got to play a game before I left-such a fun way to end the day.
I think of you as my on-line family, and I wouldn’t ever miss a chance to chat and respond to you. It is my pleasure.
I to celebrated the day with friends but friends who have become family. Right now, I could fall aslepp with a contented grin!
Gracie got a bit of turkey!
November 24, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Kat,
Have a great day. I do feel blessed to have music in my life, a home, my cat, and many other things. While I often post the reality of what the pilgrims did to the Indians, because I feel it’s important to remember, I do use this day to count my blessings. Alice’s Restaurant was a TG tradition. On the East coast there was a DJ, Alison Steel, I think that was her name; she was called the nightbird on one of the radio stations and would play this song every TG. Jewels is asleep by my side, dreaming, and the sun is beginning to shine.
Thanks for bringing more music into my life, your friendship, and your wisdom.
Waving,
Lori
November 24, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Lori,
It was the best day!
I too feel blessed. I have had the most wonderful family and an extraordinary life.
Thank you too for your friendship. I look forward to reading your comment everyday. I am glad you stay close!
Waving,
Kat
November 25, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Hey Lori!
How nice of you to mention Allison Steele! I listened to her religiously on radio, and when I made my way into the business some people used to say I sounded like her…I considered it a great compliment! Remeber how she would read poetry at the start of her show?
She was somebody special – –
Coleen
November 24, 2011 at 4:32 pm
I’m wondering how long it will take, until the turkey will enrich our traditional “harvest thanksgiving” (in Germany and Austria around first october-sunday). The Halloween-pumpkin has already made his way over here.
Happy holiday and thank you for your wonderful blog!
November 24, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Birgit,
Writing my blog is a joy, and I appreciate your thanks.
Thanskgiving turkey is the meat which never stops giving. We have today’s big dinner, then leftovers tomorrow, then turkey salad and finally turkey soup. I love turkey!
November 24, 2011 at 7:44 pm
The evening is upon us, the house is full, I am well rounded and am lying on a sofa listening to Kate. The pleasures of food wine and music collide.
November 24, 2011 at 9:24 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I finished my pie and then made my way home, also well rounded. It will be an early to bed night, but I’ll fall asleep happy and contented.