Thanksgiving 2014 indoors and out

Indoors food prep to save work tomorrow, a chicken/ham/swiss cheese thing, with flavored breadcrumbs including lemon zest, all the pounding and spreading about and rolling up and crumbing and buttering done.  

Ready to bake tomorrow. And I remembered to put a tape on it reminding me of the temp and time for baking, to save scrabbling through the cookbook to find out.  I must invent a fancy title for this, Thankful Chicken! Or possibly Poulet au jambon et fromage et miettes de pain!  Hm, by the time you've finished saying it, it's gone.  And you will note that there will not be endless leftovers to deal with.  Some to eat tomorrow, some for Handsome Son to carry off home, a bit for me for the day after.

Then the squash, already steamed, just add butter and nutmeg and heat up, mushrooms and onions to be sauteed together, potatoes ready to bake or roast, or maybe both, corn, a legal requirement in this state, fine diced green bell peppers because otherwise the whole meal might look golden.  So far so good, great fun to do in a leisurely sort of way.

Then outdoors it looks as if we are in for a very unusual white Thanksgiving.  

Handsome Son is one of the people who drive for the holiday.  Almost two miles, clear across town!  And he brings the hors d'oeuvres and the dessert, his decision as to what.

I like Thanksgiving very much, no present pressure, giving them, that is,  and no  history of Tdays of childhood, all that, since I didn't grow up with it, but like it a whole lot more than Christmas. 

There's a lot to be said for arriving at a holiday for the first time in adulthood.  Not unlike arriving in a new religion at the same time of life. I notice that people who have converted seem to be a lot happier with their religion than people who were born into it.  Probably because they chose it, didn't have it thrust upon 'em, to misquote a bit.  And I don't hear people like me fussing about having to see relatives and who said what to them as kids, and all that.

Anyway, what I'm grateful for this year:  still alive and well and active, still have friends in same situation, still live in a great neighborhood, have constant support and encouragement and good humor from blogistas all over the world, still have lovely Handsome Son coming faithfully to celebrate with me.  In fact I have a lot to be thankful for.

So if I don't make it in here tomorrow for some reason, thank you all for being in my life and allowing me into yours!