Happy Thanksgiving Gratitude and feasting

Happy Thanksgiving to all my blog pals and FB where this link will appear.  Mother nature may not cooperate with my plans to join the annual Lacrosse Turkey Trot tomorrow AM.  Our weather has been frigid, too early this year to suit me and predictions for tomorrow 8:00AM appear to be  15 to 20 degrees. We  had picked up our bibs with our participant numbers and t shirts today...but we shall see.  I will be disappointed if not but at this stage, nothing to be proven only to challenge our boundaries....  There seems to be an abnormal amount, excessive clap trap, chattering going on against Thanksgiving day shopping, protests abound on Facebook from friends and acquaintances.  Frankly, I don't understand why everyone has to object; I would not be interested in shopping tomorrow but to each his or her own.  Some do not have  big families around so they are not gathering with others; some workers relish the overtime; some people just like to shop and so be it.  Why does everyone have to condemn others for their choices?  It sure seems like we are more and more becoming too condemning of others and for something as minor as when they  shop and spend money.  Why don't people just chill out and mind their own business?  Wouldn't we be better off instead of trying to impose our choices onto others?  

2008 November Jerry & Me in Colorado, visiting his sister.
We had not a clue then how our trip would be diverted
It was quite funny to find this old country store, with our name. 

It's a bit of wistful time here with just the two of us on Thanksgiving day, thinking about those we have lost on this earth and past Thanksgivings.  Life holds no promises of the future, but plenty of time to look back....we will miss Steve all the rest of our lives, sometimes we look at each other when the moment clouds with darkness, we know what the other is thinking and we hug.  It was only five years ago that downward spiral started although it seems like another lifetime away. That's one reason and likely the major why today we are starting different traditions for us empty nesters. We thought we would already be snow birded south  by now, but again those best laid plans go astray.... some final medical appointments in December have curtailed us until January departure, so here we are.  Eating out does not appeal, no left overs, no  wonderful smells of the roasting in the oven and just too crowded, so we will enjoy a turkey breast at home with plenty of accompaniments.  Jerry does not eat stuffing nor cranberry sauce and I do; so I will have a small amount of stuffing that will last me for some time.  As I was chopping the  celery, onions, and carrot this week to mix with the bread that I have curing in a bowl, I thought, "why am I doing this for myself?"  Well why not, who else will do it for me?  The fixings are on a much diminished scale to accompany our feast tomorrow, but the preparation is the same and really compared to years back in California when I worked through the week and then still put on the family feasts, this is nothing.  It really is a blessing to enjoy good health and be able to do it all.   

Well while I have been assuring myself that winter came earlier this year, Jerry suggested not so.  Found some photos from November 2006 that recall an early snow as this of the front roses,  hmmmm.  At least there is no white stuff here on the grounds, that is one more reason for thankfulness this Thanksgiving.  

Roses in the snow, here November 2006

 

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

Pilgrim children and pumpkins
on an end table in living room

I just have my orange decor on display and after tomorrow, Thanksgiving day, it will be time to put it away for another year.  Already the next holiday harbinger of red and green is showing around town as it has been in the stores before Halloween.  Thanksgiving has been an orange holiday for us hearkening back to  our lives in Newcastle, CA where we had a mandarin orange orchard and which meant the beginning of  orange harvest. 

The Sunday local newspaper featured Thanksgiving for empty nesters like us and showed how easy this holiday centering on  food can be.  Unlike so many years in CA when we hosted large gatherings and I cooked for a week after getting home from a long day at work in the bureaucracy, today it is just us two. When I am nostalgic for those gathering times, quickly Jerry reminds me how much work it was because none of the inlaws who descended lifted a hand or finger to help out.  It was all on me and some years I really resented all that work but still I would persist, and everyone enjoyed themselves.Once in awhile the sister in laws might load the dishwasher.  But setting the table, rearranging furniture to accommodate the crowd, and more including a housefull of overnight  and week long guests was on us.  I looked but  found no photographs of those times, long before digital cameras and we were both too busy to think of taking photos as well as we were not thinking ahead to when those days would be no more except in our memories, like the song, "those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end,....." 

 I am content without all the work for the fuss and nowhere as exhausted at days end after feast preparation, yet today we have more room to gather a crowd and the time to do so, but  we are all over the country and like Steve many are gone from this earth.  We have tried  eating out  on this day and neither of us like that, the crowds are great and despite reservations restaurants cannot control how long diners will linger, so there is always a wait.  No, besides we enjoy left overs the next day and turkey sandwiches and well, the aromas of that good stuff baking in the ovens.  This year I have downsized no turkey with carcass instead a simpler turkey breast for us two accompanied by all the trimmings,mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli casserole,  stuffing for me (Jerry does not eat it), cranberry for me (another delicacy of which he will sample a spoonful and then pass), pecan pie following dinner for him (a bite or two is all I want of that) and a relaxing day with time for a predinner walk to prepare for the consumption of calories. 

Tom turkey and pumpkin Patty

So now I photograph so many things, like the autumn decor in the house, my orange.  To the left is Tom, a turkey fellow  Aunt Jinx bought and dressed for Uncle Carl along with a wooden pumpkin that I painted and sent to him.  He  referred to these as in the caption and when I found them at his home, I had to keep them.  Tom has traveled in the motor home sometimes too when we were not sure how long we'd be gone.   After their spouses were gone they both dined on Thanksgiving dinner at her home and Uncle Carl would drive "out to the country" to get a fresh turkey from Pounds turkey farm.  When we first moved  we went back to PA to have Thanksgiving dinner with them.  Somewhere I do have those photos. 

I  close with something I found in an old Ideals magazine while looking for an appropriate Thanksgiving ode.  This is  Ben Franklin and his satire.  When humor and satire are gone, then so is the fun of life. We cannot take  everything so seriously or we are done for.  You may have to click on the copies to enlarge and read them.  And to all a joyous feast wherever life winds you, this  Thanksgiving.  May you celebrate with gratitude.