Thanksgiving

The turkey is in the oven. The dishwasher is running. Pies and bread are baked and cooling on the counter. Having finally found our kitchen string, I am still wondering which box our cookie sheets are in. Preparation of the biggest meal of the year is going fairly smoothly, considering that we started cooking in our new kitchen a mere 2 months ago. We still need to paint and tile, though, so we haven't moved everything back into the kitchen yet. Many of our kitchen items are in boxes stacked in our office room. We've located the cake pans but not the cookie sheets. Finding the bread machine was easy, but we had to dig for the pie plates. And, how is it that both the salt and pepper shakers needed to be re-filled today, right in the middle of preparing the turkey? This will be the third Thanksgiving dinner we have prepared in the midst of kitchen turmoil. I hope our kitchen is finished next year, so that it doesn't become a new Thanksgiving tradition in our family.

Nate and Tom went to the park to hit a few golf balls while I got the bird ready for the oven. They said that you can smell turkey cooking up and down the street. Ours will be ready about 5:30 or so, and we'll eat at 6:00. I like the later time, so I don't have to get up so early to get the turkey cooking. We'll probably have a movie night after dinner, and eat our dessert downstairs while watching the movie.

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Nate seems to be having a great year at school with his new teacher. It looks like we will be able to get him into the GATE (gifted) program, since his teacher really acknowledges and appreciates his abilities. Our kitchen is shaping up nicely. Tom and I both have good jobs, and my work has been going really well lately. We had a wonderful trip to Yosemite, and are looking forward to another great ski season. Nate is making friends at school, and all three of us are pretty happy where we are.

In honor of the holiday, I am going to post an e-mail that Tom sent to a friend exactly 2 years ago, after our first Thanksgiving in our house in San Francisco. We had just moved into the house a week before Thanksgiving, and were patting ourselves on the back for having put together yet another delicious Thanksgiving dinner. As to what happened next, I'll let the e-mail do the talking. Let's just say "pride goeth before a fall..."

Thanksgiving went pretty well, at least until the geysering started.

I know what you're thinking, geysers are not a traditional part of the thanksgiving celebration. This is true even in San Francisco where all manner of non-traditional activities are woven into the fabric of society. Because, really, when you're staring at a geyser, it's a little difficult to think of things to be thankful for. It's true that the geysers in Yellowstone are awe-inspiring. Although, I have to admit that Old Faithful was somewhat less awe-inspiring than I had built it up in my mind. But I am quite certain that while gazing at Old Faithful I was not overcome with a wave of thankfulness.

So, as I watched the geyser I found it difficult to think of things to be thankful for. Particularly when the geyser is your house that you moved into less than a week previous. I suppose I might be thankful that the geyser is in the kitchen and not in the bathroom. And I suppose I might be thankful that the geysering started after dinner and not before. But really, a geyser is not the type of sight that inspires thoughts of thankfulness.

I guess that I would be thankful that I was able to clean all of the dishes before the geysering started. The roasting pan for the turkey. The pot for mashed potatoes. The vegetable steamer and sauté pan for the glazed carrots. The food processor for the cranberry dressing. The pan for the gravy. Not to mention the serving dishes for each and our various plates and utensils. Unfortunately, the geysering started just as the dishwasher was full of dirty dishes and every horizontal surface in the kitchen was stacked with the flotsam leftover from our tradition of over-doing thanksgiving.

As I stood in front of the kitchen sink watching a geyser rise up from the bowels of our new home, I was not feeling thankful. However, in retrospect I find many things to be thankful for. I am thankful that the geyser was not so tall as to hit the ceiling. I'm thankful that the geyser was not so wide as to spray out of the sink. I'm thankful that the geyser was of sufficiently short duration that the sink was able to hold all of its contents. I'm also thankful for paper plates, plastic utensils and Chinese take-out.

As to whether we'll keep the thanksgiving geyser as part of our tradition, I'll have to wait until next year to say for sure. But I'll be thankful if it's not.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, geyser-free Thanksgiving!!