I never felt more like the matriarch of my little family than yesterday, Thanksgiving Day. I spent most of the day cooking or doing laundry, and by the time we sat down to eat, all the dishes were delicious and still warm, and everyone was dressed up for the occasion, even though we didn’t go anywhere and nobody came to us.
The lovely dinner couldn’t have happened quite the way it did without everyone’s help, though.
My parents were visiting from Connecticut, so my mom helped in the kitchen. My dad took the boys to the park. Later, Stewart kept an eye on them when they frolicked around in their traditional Thanksgiving Day mud puddle.
Well, it’s a tradition now.
With no real agenda for the day, I concentrated on the cooking – making sure all dishes would be hot when they got to the table, despite my toy-sized oven in my tiny kitchen that can only fit a small turkey and barely anything else. We ordered the turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and rolls from a local grocery store. I made a bourbon vanilla cranberry sauce, a traditional green bean casserole, and carmelized Brussels sprouts, and my mother made candied carrots. We poured a lovely zinfandel to accompany it all.
The kids were very helpful, too. I suggested to Brady that we all dress “fancy,” and he enthusiastically agreed. He wore his fancy jacket and fancy hat, and even combed his hair.
His energy was infectious. Kyle donned his First Communion suit. Stewart whipped out a salwar kameez that a student had given him a while ago that he has never worn. Kyle picked out a dress for me and urged me to wear lipstick. My mom donned a beautiful new sweater with matching jewelry. Even my dad put on a dress(ier) polo shirt.
And Kyle, in his fancy suit, took on the role of waiter. He drew up formal menus for the meal, and acted like a waiter in a fancy restaurant, urging us to retire to the “luxury room” after we ate to wait while the dishes were cleaned before returning for dessert (homemade pumpkin pie, which turned out great).
After we ate we took a walk around the neighborhood. It was 59 degrees and just lovely. We rounded out the day watching Home Alone, which is Brady’s favorite movie, reserved for Christmas time.
I guess it’s Christmas time now.
Everyone looks so dapper! That’s awesome!
All of this sounds perfectly lovely, and a lot like our family’s Thanksgiving (although we elected to stay in pajamas as a treat rather than dressing up. And we watched Elf which is our movie tradition. And we drank Cabernet instead of Zinfandel).
But these are small differences when compared to the important elements: loved ones, hot food, after-dinner walks.
And mud puddles. There’s always room for mud puddles.