Thanksgiving Gratitude

Yesterday before the Internet went down at work again, I enjoyed seeing people's holiday preparations.  I even copied an old family recipe for "Mother's Dressing" (what Southerners call stuffing when it's not in a bird).

Did I go home last night and bake a small skillet of cornbread along with some biscuits that the recipe would need?  No I did not.  We're having a meal with plenty of carbs:  sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy (I count gravy as a carb, but it could also be a fat), pumpkin pie--we don't really need a pan of dressing.  If I decide I'm wrong, I still have time to make a version.

I have a pumpkin pie baking and cranberries and in the same oven, apples stewing down to become a cranberry relish. We got up extra early to put a brisket on the grill.  I've thought of smells of brisket wafting through the neighborhood and wondered if our neighbors wondered what we were doing.  But we were probably the only ones awake and cooking at 4:30 a.m.

We are taking these delicious items, along with a sweet potato souffle/casserole with praline topping, to our neighborhood friends where we will have an outdoor dinner with a turkey my friend is cooking, along with mashed potatoes and green beans.  They are the friends who gave us the piano.

We've been seeing these friends every 2 weeks, as we have been doing for years, for outdoors wine, cheese, and crackers--we've done our happy hour outdoors, even in the years when it hasn't been crucial, through rain and heat and chill and perfect weather. 

We decided early on in the pandemic that it was likely safe to continue seeing each other--I'm the only one working outside the home, and their child is in the early teen years where she doesn't want to participate in group activities. We decided to be a quarantine pod, and when we've ventured outside our pod (like the few times we've traveled in the last 9 months), we've let each other know.

These days, just leaving the house feels like a risk with a contagious disease running rampant.  But joining our local friends feels like less of a risk than others are taking.  Sigh.

I'm glad we decided not to have a family gathering in North Carolina, even as I have spent time this week feeling wistful, nostalgic, sad, and wimpery.  We've had Zoom family meetings in the evening, which has been fun.  We've sent each other stuff in the mail.

I've had a nontraditional Thanksgiving breakfast:  I made a small custard cup of leftover pumpkin pie filling.  Delicious!  This past week-end, I tried to make oatmeal sandwich cookies that my uncle always brings from a baker in his area.  That cookie would be my traditional Thanksgiving breakfast, but I couldn't get the cookies just right.  I decided not to spend the week trying.

With luck, I'll be able to see my family next year.  This year, I'm trying to focus not on what is lost right now, but what I do have:  good food, a loving spouse, friends who have been keeping safe, a roof over my head, a job.