Giving Thanks
It was a good Thanksgiving this year.
Every year for the past... hmmm, 12? years, DH and I have hosted my family's Thanksgiving celebration. It started when we moved into our first house. We wanted to take some of the holiday load off of my mom, but more selfishly, we wanted to use and enjoy and share the blessing of finally having a kitchen of our *own*.
This is a tradition I would not trade.
Over the years, we have perfected the menu. Oh, we don't cook it all ourselves - we finally figured out that it was more fun to spread the load. Mom brings the dressing (mmmmm....) and the sweet potato casserole (nuts on top, please, none of this marshmallow nonsense) and the pumpkin pie. Sister Hi-Energy Tornado brings the green beans and the chocolate pies. (Other people associate Thanksgiving with pumpkin pie... not me. My mother's chocolate chess pie, made by my sister, is to die for!) Sister Earth-Nurturing-Mother brings salad and a veggie and bread (2 varieties this year, including blueberry muffins. Mmmm.)
So what do DH and I do? Ahh, this is my favorite - we, meaning mostly DH - do the turkey!
It has become a familiar ritual now, born of long years of painful mistakes. First, move the turkey from the freezer to the fridge NO LATER than the Saturday before Thanksgiving. To do otherwise means staying up very late the night before the feast, changing a lot of turkey water baths in the kitchen sink. Second, the night before the feast, unwrap the turkey and remove all those little bags stuffed inside it. (How many of us have roasted that baby with all the giblets and such still inside it? Only once, right?) Third, go to bed early and arise before dawn to light the grill, charcoal please, not gas. Give the fire a couple of hours to get good and hot. (You will need a lot of charcoal! And hickory chips for flavor.) And finally, about 7 a.m., put on the bird. Or birds. (We figure if we're going to this much trouble, we would like enough leftovers to freeze for future meals!)
DH smokes the turkey by building his fire on one side of the grill and putting the bird, in a pan, on the other side, the side with the vent. That way the smoke is drawn over the bird and infuses it with wonderful flavor.
I love DH's smoked turkey. It is moist, it is flavorful, it is HIS. And I love preparing it with him.
*********************************************
What I Gave Thanks For This Year (and am thankful for every day):
Family:
A husband who understands and loves me
Children who orbit us (to borrow MFS' metaphor)
Parents who are still alive and well and involved in my kids' lives
Siblings whom I enjoy, not dread
In-laws who love me and accept me as one of their own, in every good way
A grandmother who endures, despite her age and physical limitations
Aunt D., who taught me to love reading and teaches me still
Friends:
DH who is my soul mate
Sisters and a brother who are also friends
A new sister, courtesy of my dear brother's marriage this year
BFF Ruthie who is there for the long haul
New friends who share our spiritual perspective
Homeschool friends who encourage and commiserate
Neighbor friends who make our home a nicer place to be
An Education:
The many, many books read this year that have transported me, if only temporarily, to a different reality than my own
The travel to other countries and other parts of my own country that have opened my eyes to different ways of living and being
The friends I made in college who stick with me still (you know who you are!) and ground me in who I used to be and challenge me
The Internet connection that helps me obtain books, plan travel, and communicate with friends. (It's also connected me to the NYTimes, Arts and Letters Daily, Miriam-Webster online, Spanish lessons, and the world of bloggers, to name just a few of its other benefits.)
A techno-geek dh who keeps our home humming
Beauty:
A view of water out my breakfast room window and trees in my bedroom vista
A hometown with four seasons
A large number of exotic fish who've taken up residence nearby
The North Georgia mountains
Freedom:
To worship
To read and think and learn
To say what we believe to be true
To disagree and argue and debate
To give
To serve
To choose where and how we live
To choose where and how we educate our kids
A final thanksgiving note: One of the biggest blessings is the act of thanksgiving, in itself: The longer your list gets, the longer it could get. Every blessing remembered brings to mind even more.
Every year for the past... hmmm, 12? years, DH and I have hosted my family's Thanksgiving celebration. It started when we moved into our first house. We wanted to take some of the holiday load off of my mom, but more selfishly, we wanted to use and enjoy and share the blessing of finally having a kitchen of our *own*.
This is a tradition I would not trade.
Over the years, we have perfected the menu. Oh, we don't cook it all ourselves - we finally figured out that it was more fun to spread the load. Mom brings the dressing (mmmmm....) and the sweet potato casserole (nuts on top, please, none of this marshmallow nonsense) and the pumpkin pie. Sister Hi-Energy Tornado brings the green beans and the chocolate pies. (Other people associate Thanksgiving with pumpkin pie... not me. My mother's chocolate chess pie, made by my sister, is to die for!) Sister Earth-Nurturing-Mother brings salad and a veggie and bread (2 varieties this year, including blueberry muffins. Mmmm.)
So what do DH and I do? Ahh, this is my favorite - we, meaning mostly DH - do the turkey!
It has become a familiar ritual now, born of long years of painful mistakes. First, move the turkey from the freezer to the fridge NO LATER than the Saturday before Thanksgiving. To do otherwise means staying up very late the night before the feast, changing a lot of turkey water baths in the kitchen sink. Second, the night before the feast, unwrap the turkey and remove all those little bags stuffed inside it. (How many of us have roasted that baby with all the giblets and such still inside it? Only once, right?) Third, go to bed early and arise before dawn to light the grill, charcoal please, not gas. Give the fire a couple of hours to get good and hot. (You will need a lot of charcoal! And hickory chips for flavor.) And finally, about 7 a.m., put on the bird. Or birds. (We figure if we're going to this much trouble, we would like enough leftovers to freeze for future meals!)
DH smokes the turkey by building his fire on one side of the grill and putting the bird, in a pan, on the other side, the side with the vent. That way the smoke is drawn over the bird and infuses it with wonderful flavor.
I love DH's smoked turkey. It is moist, it is flavorful, it is HIS. And I love preparing it with him.
*********************************************
What I Gave Thanks For This Year (and am thankful for every day):
Family:
A husband who understands and loves me
Children who orbit us (to borrow MFS' metaphor)
Parents who are still alive and well and involved in my kids' lives
Siblings whom I enjoy, not dread
In-laws who love me and accept me as one of their own, in every good way
A grandmother who endures, despite her age and physical limitations
Aunt D., who taught me to love reading and teaches me still
Friends:
DH who is my soul mate
Sisters and a brother who are also friends
A new sister, courtesy of my dear brother's marriage this year
BFF Ruthie who is there for the long haul
New friends who share our spiritual perspective
Homeschool friends who encourage and commiserate
Neighbor friends who make our home a nicer place to be
An Education:
The many, many books read this year that have transported me, if only temporarily, to a different reality than my own
The travel to other countries and other parts of my own country that have opened my eyes to different ways of living and being
The friends I made in college who stick with me still (you know who you are!) and ground me in who I used to be and challenge me
The Internet connection that helps me obtain books, plan travel, and communicate with friends. (It's also connected me to the NYTimes, Arts and Letters Daily, Miriam-Webster online, Spanish lessons, and the world of bloggers, to name just a few of its other benefits.)
A techno-geek dh who keeps our home humming
Beauty:
A view of water out my breakfast room window and trees in my bedroom vista
A hometown with four seasons
A large number of exotic fish who've taken up residence nearby
The North Georgia mountains
Freedom:
To worship
To read and think and learn
To say what we believe to be true
To disagree and argue and debate
To give
To serve
To choose where and how we live
To choose where and how we educate our kids
A final thanksgiving note: One of the biggest blessings is the act of thanksgiving, in itself: The longer your list gets, the longer it could get. Every blessing remembered brings to mind even more.
posted by Mamabird @ 7:24 AM
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