All Together Again

Since NASA is developing the next class of rocket propulsion, they should study my mom.

Right now she is OVER the MOON.

For the first time in about a decade, we are all together again for Thanksgiving Day.

My brother has moved back to North Alabama, and my family will be joining my parents & him for the big feast. But it will be the first Thanksgiving in a while that we have not spent with my husband's family, but this will work itself out. His sister & her family now live in Birmingham and I think she wants to start having Thanksgiving down there. This is also the first Thanksgiving in a while that my parents have not spent traveling.

It's a funny story how the parents ended up traveling to the kid for Thanksgiving. Not long after I got married, my brother took a job with a company that did not have any facilities in Alabama. He spent two years working in north Georgia, so he was able to come back for holidays. Then they transferred him to North Carolina; that's a far piece to drive, but not far enough to make flying cost effective. So he thought he'd save his vacation time for Christmas. Being new in town, he hadn't made any close enough friendships to garner an invite to someone's house for Turkey & Football Day, so he headed out to a local sports bar where a radio station was having a Thanksgiving buffet for folks who didn't have anywhere to go. (Free food & football, right?) They also offered free phone calls back home. When they made the call for my brother, they jokingly told my parents they ought to be ashamed of themselves, letting Bill go without turkey.

(Um, my mom might "be on the spectrum." She doesn't get most jokes, can't tell a joke to save her live, and cannot tell when someone is joking.)

Starting the next year, my mom packed up my dad to drive out to wherever my brother was living, first North Carolina, then Florida. She'd buy the groceries there and whatever cooking gear he needed. Despite all of her grousing about how expensive the trip was, she enjoyed it, because she enjoys cooking for a lot of people; they would always have Bill invite over folks. (My mom also enjoys grousing about money, but that should be it's own blog post.)

I haven't asked her yet what she's making, but she will try to make things my brother really likes (she dotes on him) and things that have developed into family favorites. I can guess: turkey & dressing with giblet gravy, of course, and some sort of cranberry sauce-- likely fresh; carrots (for my dad & my kids), also peas, maybe "drunken" pearl onions; there'll be her "twice baked" potatoes, maybe stuffed with bits of monkfish; there'll be the "sweet potato souffle" (sweet taters creamed with butter & brown sugar, mixed with raisins, then topped with mini-marshmallows); she might make roasted potatoes, in case my kids will reject the other two potato dishes; tossed salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and lots of onions; rolls, but ones that have to be baked, not browned; dessert will likely be pies that she makes in advance-- pumpkin, since I gave her one of our pumpkin patch ones, and a fruit pie (apple? peach? pear? muscadine? blackberry?), although she might opt to do a pie & a cheesecake instead. We will be expected to try to eat all of this after she lays out an assortment of hors d'oeuvres-- chilled shrimp ring, cheeses, crackers, nuts, maybe something wrapped in bacon, oyster/sardine tins for the "men." She'll be the perfect hostess with colas, spirits, two wines, beer, ice in a bucket (milk and juice for the kids.) She'll ask my brother to say grace, but if he defers, either my dad or my husband will give it a good "Baptist" blessing, followed up with the traditional Catholic "stinger." She'll have out her china, crystal & silver for this. Well, her second best anyways, on account of my kids.

Doing even half of that would wear me out, but in the planning and execution of such a feast, my mom is immersed in joy. Her product is a proud & tasty work of art, and a happy, well-fed family. She also manages to make just enough that there's only essential leftovers-- side dishes for a meal or two, turkey & dressing for the week, desserts to share. We chuckle at her mania for cooking a family holiday feast, but THAT is EXACTLY what makes her happy & means "holiday" to her. We all have our passions; I'll just let her enjoy her passion. (And mix, stir, chop, pour, set whatever she marshals me to do next week.)