I am so thankful Thanksgiving is finally here. In just a few hours, family and friends will be here–all of them people I’m longing to see.
Right now, I’m thankful that my ambitions for today have been squished by the pressure of time back to finite reality. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t go back to the grocery store for just-one-more thing. (How many times did I go back yesterday?) Do I have time to….
- …clean the whole house before everyone shows up? No.
- ….cut up raw vegetables. Yes, plenty of time for that, nothing to worry about.
- ….lose 10 lbs before everyone gets here? No.
- ….write a blog entry? No. But I’m doing it anyway.
All over the US, fervent prayers are rising from every kitchen. Oh, Lord, you know I don’t know how to cook this ugly bird. By your mighty power, keep the breast meat from drying out while ensuring that the rest of it gets cooked. In your infinite kindness, don’t send me more than two people this year who always, always, and only want a drumstick. And please, by your merciful aid, don’t let any parts of it burn and stink up my kitchen.
In my kitchen, prayers get even more complex. Of course I have turkey–what do I look like, a furriner? But it’s not the main event for most of the family.
Frank won’t eat meat, though he’s very fond of fish. Kevin hates fish–thank goodness he does like turkey. Mira won’t eat meat or fish, but she is looking forward to my big vegetable pot pie and the green olives stuffed with feta cheese she said she wanted and I found for her. Zoe is vegan–I’ve got lots of veggies and something beany, for her. I can’t serve anything with eggs in it, by the way–not unless I want to watch Father V taken away in an ambulance–he’s terribly, terribly allergic to eggs.
So I’m a bit hassled right now. (Stop blogging, Betsy!) But I’m also thankful. Thankful the day is here at last. Thankful my life includes people I love enough to fuss over like this. Thankful for the super-special people who show up way early to help.
And aren’t you thankful you don’t have my family to cook for?
Postscript: A couple of people left Thanksgiving morning comments–I don’t know why the software decided to hide them. Maybe the tech gods were running around their own kitchens? Anyway, I copied and pasted them here. Betsy
From Oren Sreebny: “A great post to read early on Thanksgiving morning (west coast time) – being in the midst of a huge kitchen remodel which is running months late, we’re not hosting Thanksgiving for the first time in like twenty years, instead doing it at my parents house. Reading your post made me smile and relax – thanks, and have a great holiday weekend!”
From marcum: “I did not have time to blog either. Lol.”