Thankful

As always, we celebrated our Thanksgiving on Saturday (yesterday).  And as always it was a success.  This year, however, I especially enjoyed myself.  Perhaps because I delegated some of the cooking, or because I'm finally getting the timing down as far as baking with just one oven; but for whatever reason, this year I was much more relaxed than I have been in the past and I was really able to simply relish the beauty of the holiday.

I started with preparations on Thursday--pie crust dough and the sauteed veggies for the stuffing.  Then Friday kicked off the beginning of baking to clear the oven for Saturday morning turkey.  The bird was done at 11:30am, which gave me plenty of time to carve it before everyone arrived, heat the stuffing in the oven and make the gravey.  It also gave me time to bake a last-minute carrot cake because I suddenly realized that only one pumpkin pie wouldn't be enough dessert for 12 people!

We had quite a spread, although fairly traditional: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green salad, and, an Andalusian touch--jamón.  The food was delicious and the company even better.  I was asked to bless the table (in English and Spanish) and one friend was standing by prepared with the National Anthem on his cell phone playing in the background.  Agreed, it's corny, but I do appreciate the enthusiasm to appropriately celebrate the holiday. :)  They even indulged me later by following in my family's tradition of going round the table saying what we're thankful for.

Lunch extended on til around 6:30 with desserts, coffee, and plenty of chatting.  Our family had other engagements and so left earlier, but it had been more than six months since out group of friends had gotten together all at once.  This was the perfect excuse to hang out and catch up.

This Thanksgiving I was especially thankful for the friends I've made here and as always for my wife and beautiful daughter.  It was a wonderful day.