November 25th

Dear Diary,

Thanksgiving… a day of gratitude. Count those blessings, one by one.  Family, food and football. I know that the day means different things to different people. And how it’s celebrated – or whether it’s celebrated or not – is up to the individual.

I’m hosting dinner here at the house.  Mama’s cooking the turkey that I bought at her house and I sort of regret that now as my house won’t have that wonderful smell.  She’s making her “famous” dressing with the cornbread that I baked. She’s bringing a surprise for R….boiled shrimp as an appetizer.  So far, I’m preparing a spinach salad with cranberries – a new recipe that I found – plus broccli-n-rice, green bean casserole, yams, and mashed potatoes – all by request of R.  Hubby wants the yams baked with brown sugar and marshmallows, although I had a recipe the other night with yams and apples sauted with  brown sugar and pecans.  Don’t think there will be any room for dessert and not sure if I want to attempt anything now. I have the time so will see.

Who’s coming to dinner?  Mama, Aunt R.  (her sister ), Aunt V. (dad’s sister), the 3 of us, J. who will be in sometime but not sure if he’ll make it by noon. I called to invite K & D and the baby, knowing full well that they were going to her parents for today (K is my nephew), to stop by on their way home. But they may show up for lunch as it is dinner at her folks.  Truly, the invitation was given out of love and not strictly for a chance to see the baby, who’s celebrating his first month of life today!  It will be a nice surprise for mama.

Who’s not coming to dinner? Sister, her hubby and other son (K’s family).  They are at the deer lease. If the baby  wasn’t so young, I’m sure K&D would be there as well.   They’ve been going to the lease for the past 5 years. While this provided them with some good family time away from the hustle and bustle, it did take them away from “immediate” family.  They are with a big group friends so I’m sure there is good food and good fun. They started this the first year after daddy died.

We’ve never really discussed this, but I think it was N.’s way of dealing with the fact that daddy wasn’t around. I will tell you that the first Thanksgiving without him was really hard.  For some crazy reason, we decided not to cook and went out to eat instead. Lovely little place, delicious food, but just not the same. 

Daddy loved mama’s cooking. He loved celebrating most days and holidays were special. He loved his birthday and took great pride in telling his age – cause he certainly didn’t look that old. But he wasn’t a vain man either. He just loved the fact that his birthday was during the thanksgiving season and that some years Thanksgiving fell on his birth date.

Happy Thanksgiving…and Happy Birthday, PoPo. Today is your day…

…November 25th.

~Susie