Thanksgiving 2018
The Eleven
My wife reminded me to get a group photo afterward; these are the eleven people in attendance at our 2018 Thanksgiving meal.
As might be expected, we ate Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. As is our custom, my wife cooked throughout the morning while I cleaned, tried to keep the children out of her way, helped her when I could, and carved the ham just before we ate. In a new and exciting twist, we invited actual guests to our home for Thanksgiving, and ate the meal at a brand new table.
The guests were my wife’s cousin’s family and the family of one of my wife’s coworkers, bringing total attendance to 11 people — as seen in the photo above. Without really thinking about it, we came up with a fairly diverse crowd — the six adults were born in Boston, New York City, Ecuador, Haiti, Salt Lake City, and Honolulu, and represent at least three distinct ethnic backgrounds.
The table wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment purchase, but the timing was. My wife and I had been eyeing it for more than six months, and we’ve always known our older dining room table was temporary. Originally intending to buy our “forever table” when we move into our “forever home”, we changed our minds on Saturday and bought the table — the last one in stock — and assembled it that afternoon. It’s a counter-height, 60"x60" solid wooden table with eight stool-height chairs. It has a self-contained, fold-in leaf that reduces the size to 60"x42" (for when we don’t have guests).
The Tables
Slightly washed out in the foreground is our new table with new tablecloth, while in the left background is our older table.
The older table, which we bought at now-defunct Lack’s Furniture in 2009, and which will soon be given away or sold at a very low price, came in handy as our “buffet”, as seen below.
The Spread
There was easily enough food for all 11 of us.
Pontificating
My daughter made this photograph of me mansplaining something to my wife from the comfort of my easy chair while I should have been vacuuming — the idle cleaning device caught the focus of her camera, as if to make a statement.
While I cleaned house “all” morning — bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting, emptying trashes, setting up tables — my wife cooked. She made her holiday specialty, the glorious ham, and her other regular Thanksgiving foods: roast chicken with potatoes, “ice-box butterhorn” rolls, rice and beans, French-cut green beans, stuffing, and glazed sweet potatoes. She also made pineapple upside-down cake. I don’t know how she does all this with only one oven in our kitchen.
Guests brought lasagna, a potatoes-and-carrots dish, pecan pie, and a healthy tray of celery, bell peppers, carrot sticks and cucumber slices.
We had the typical north-south argument over the pronunciation of “pecan”: we southerners call it “puhKAWN”, and the northeasterners say “PEE can”. I explained that every time I hear that, I think: “I don’t need a can to pee in; I own a toilet.” I always think this is funny, but usually no one else does. This time, I got a laugh out of at least two of our guests — the foreign-born ones.
The children were remarkably well-behaved and the adult conversations were happily without malice or argument. Our cozy home was just the right size for this gathering, and all of us ate just slightly more than we probably should have.
The weather was nice enough that we stepped outside for half an hour so the children could kick soccer balls around in our back yard — until they disturbed a hill of fire ants that I’d overlooked during the previous day’s slaughter of the tiny but valiant insects.
I didn’t pick up my camera more than twice, so I was glad my daughter was roaming around with hers (she uses my old Canon 350D (Rebel XT). The following five images were all made by my daughter Rebecca.
Pajamas And Rolls
My wife rolls the dough for her ice-box butterhorn rolls
Socializing
Though socializing isn’t my forte, I think I made it through the afternoon without any major social faux pax.
Our Better Halves
Rebecca made this portrait of the three wives in our bedroom.
Lilly
The youngest attendee, Lilly, only 16 months old, had no problems following and playing with the four older children in the house.
The Magic
My daughter made this photo too, which I thought was the most artistic of the day. I can’t say for certain what’s happening here, but the paper at right seems to be floating, and Alyssa seems to be falling, but I think both are camera-induced illusions. Rebecca was very proud of this photo.
Note: Click any of the images to see a larger version.
Older Comments
Anderson Connors, 2018.12.01, 16:23:05:
It sounds like a wonderful gathering. I'm glad it went well.
"...the northeasterners say 'PEE can'..."
Yes, this grates on me every time I hear it in a movie. I'm not a hobo; I don't pee in a can. Fortunately, the word doesn't come up often in my day-to-day life.
"...the adult conversations were happily without malice or argument..."
Then it wasn't REALLY Thanksgiving, was it? (Joke.) Just for fun, next year you should invite a couple of racists *and* a couple of undocumented immigrants. (Also a joke. Perhaps in poor taste. Sorry. I'm excited to see your blog again.)
Wil C. Fry, in response to Anderson Connors, 2018.12.01, 18:00:08
"Then it wasn’t REALLY Thanksgiving, was it? (Joke.)"
Ha. I dislike strongly the TV/movie trope that holidays with family always have to be fraught with stress, but this year, I simply couldn't imagine being peaceful while in the same room as most of my relatives.