chocolate-covered peanuts
hot tea
lounge pants
sunshine
the vet appt to finally fix Lola the Cat
Netflix on Demand
pizza night!
my family
and, for some reason, the gigantic pile of turkeys in the meat section of the grocery store.
Maybe that last one is because I adore Thanksgiving. The whole idea of it is wonderful. Day off during the week, bonus 1. Day AFTER that off as well, bonus 2. Parades and football on teevee, with nothing else to do with the day but cook and EAT? Bonus 3. And this year, getting to spend the day with extended family, bonus 4. Oh, and Mom asked us to make 'slap yo mama' potatoes, so that's a huge bonus 5, because that is a food that needs an excuse. Hoo, my, yes.
Thanksgiving also finds me in a very New York state of mind. This is, undoubtedly, because for years when I was a kid we'd all go to my Aunt's house on Long Island for the big feed. EVERYONE in that house but my brothers and I had big ol' New York accents, my cousins especially, so that gets put in the subliminal 'part of the holidays' interior decorating I can't help but do this time of year. It's not Thanksgiving without a parade, football, and a longing to go to New York.
Weirdness, I know.
Thinking about those days long gone some more, I recall that there was always a bowl of nuts that had to be hand-cracked, and a crudite tray with celery and olives put out before dinner. I'd spend a long time cracking those nuts, trying to get a walnut to crack perfectly along the seam, then digging out what I'd hope was an unshattered 'meat' from the papery inner husk. I was not so much into the veggies, for there are no distinct memories of me eagerly tucking into a handful of celery. Clearly, patterns of preference are set quite early in life.
Sometimes it would be nice enough out that we could rake up a pile of leaves in their big backyard, then spend some time demolishing it by focused frolicking within it. Or we'd create skits to present to the adults later in the weekend if the weather wasn't great or if it was dark out (which naturally happened, as late November sees the sun set at disturbingly early times!). Oh, the adventures of 'The Smiling Smurdleys' were, I'm sure, things of great art, and I'm sure the parents enjoyed them after a glass or two of red wine. There are pictures, somewhere, of kids and adults alike, and everyone looks happy, so let's go with the mutual enjoyment of the activity slant, shall we?We had some good times at their house, and good memories have come of it. Why, I'll bet in 35 years' time I'll be the crazy old lady in the nursing home who thinks she's 11 and consistently tries to get the ambulatory among the population to go out and jump in a big ol' pile of leaves come turkey day, such will be my impaired memory yet undiminished enthusiasm over Thanksgiving. We'll shuffle outside on the pretext of 'getting some air,' I'll share a nip from the bottle of bourbon a helpful grandchild will no doubt have smuggled in to me, and we'll carefully leap into a leaf pile I paid one of the orderlies to confabulate. OK, some of us might just walk slowly into it (hips!), and some might just breathe in the delicious scent of a bunch of perfectly dry leaves, but I'll bet all involved will remember what it's like to be young and indestructible as a rubber chicken, and life will, for a minute, be very good indeed.
That's my plan for right now, anyhow.
Is it pretty common to love Thanksgiving as much as I do, or do you prefer other, less gluttonous holidays? Feel free to share, and then have a lovely weekend.
Tiff out.
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