Thanksgiving

After years of traveling to far off places for Thanksgiving, we finally got the opportunity to host this year. We invited my mother and sisters and all their husbands over to our home. It wound up being a small crowd of six total, but it was fun. We even had a drop-in. Guest number seven was one of my lieutenants, who joined us for dinner, but quickly left for another event somewhere else. This is not the first time I have hosted Thanksgiving. Years ago in a place far from here (Bamberg, Germany, 2005), I hosted Thanksgiving for 20 lieutenants and student teachers. I had some help then, with Luke (of “Bo Brothers by the Bottle” fame: http://bobrothersbythebottle.blogspot.com/ ) taking care of the turkey, Joe handling the Glühwein, and we providing the location. The dinner concluded with a rousing game of spoons, singing, and Gary spilling wine all over my hardwood floors. This Thanksgiving was far tamer. However, this was the first time Kristin and I hosted as a couple, which made us feel much more grown-up than we actually are. For the first time, we were in charge of shopping for a turkey (Kristin is still talking about the 27-cents-a-pound bargain she found), cooking said turkey, and preparing most of the fixings. Kristin even baked a pie from scratch (mostly). Despite the potential stresses, which included coating our entire countertop with a thick layer of turkey grease while making ravy, we had a blast. Our little home was just the right size for the group we had. After dinner, we filled up on apple and pumpkin pies, then collectively went into a food coma. Ahh…