I didn't sleep worth a darn last night. Yesterday they put a 24 hour halter monitor on me to record my heart. I have been having a lot of racing heartbeats lately and they bother me so the doctor wants to check them out. You know, it will be my luck that nothing out of the ordinary will happen while the recording is being made...any way, the point is that I have wires running all over my chest and a monitor strapped to my waist so trying to sleep last night was a problem.
The 24 hours ends in about twenty minutes and then I'll get to take all this crap off and head for bed. Just kidding (no, I'm not).
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. There were seven of us this year. Dana's sister Cheryl, his daughter Cheryl Lynn, her husband Phil and the two grandsons (Dylan and Zachary) plus Dana and I. Dana's sister Cheryl brought over her Asparagus Au gratin and Cheryl Lynn brought a wonderful Strawberry Pizza dessert. Aside from that I did all the cooking. I'm very funny about having guests in my home. I don't like for them to bring anything, or help in the kitchen or try to clean up afterwards. I feel my guest should be treated like guests from beginning to end so I tend to be stubborn and do it all myself.
Today we had Turkey, Dressing, Ham, Sweet Potatoes with marshmallows, home made mashed potatoes, Giblet gravy (made by sister Cheryl because I won't touch the stuff) green beans, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, olives, radishes, individual mini loaves of bread, carrot salad, Homemade pies - one pecan and one pumpkin with strussel walnut topping. And lots and lots of iced tea. I spent all morning cooking and I love it...but I am tired.
I miss my son and my family terribly during the holidays but Dana's family is mine now too and we have a wonderful time when we're together. I love listening to them tell stories about the old days just as much as I love my families old stories.
Below is a photo of me preparing my very first Thanksgiving dinner as a new bride in 1977. My husband and I lived in a one bedroom apartment and I made dinner for my grandmother, my dad, Robert and I. Both my grandmother and my dad were great cooks in their own right so I was being really brave...looking back I imagine my grandmother did a lot of the cooking. The next year I had Thanksgiving at our house again only this time I included Robert's family, my in-laws, and I didn't cook the turkey long enough. My dad went to slice it and it was still raw. I fell apart. With all those people there for dinner and my turkey was raw. My daddy came to my rescue. He sliced the raw turkey up and finished it off in the micro wave (a remedy only a restaurateur would have thought off). I have always put on a Thanksgiving Day meal no matter what including doing it four weeks after my son passed away. That was absolutely the hardest thing I ever did in my life. Oddly enough, even harder than the funeral.
Next are a couple of pictures of our annual Thanksgiving Dinner that we (staff) put on for our students. For many of them this will be their only holiday dinner and also the first time they have eaten anything real in a while. They are so poor and live on Ramen noodles or McDonalds so this is a real treat for them and they are so appreciative.
And finally - this is a photo of the celebration at our house today. From left to right is Dylan, Sister Cheryl, Zachary (singing a song for everyone) , Phil and Cheryl Lynn.
I intend to clean up the kitchen and then settle in on the couch for the afternoon. I'll watch old movies including two of my favorite movies shot in New Mexico, Red Sky at Morning and Milagro Beanfield War. I will drift in and out of sleep and dream of Holidays gone by, of family and friends that no longer sit at my table. I love them all so dearly.
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you walked away full, both physically and spiritually.
2 comments:
I enjoyed reading it all and seeing the photos. Looks so cozy there at the table. I didn't have to do a thing. My chef son (the one with the tatoos) and his dad, cooked the whole meal. I only had to play with the grandkids.
Unlike you, I don't enjoy cooking and was glad to pass off the torch this year.
fun read....enjoyed it and I can imagine how hard it must have been putting on a dinner that quickly after Andrew passed.
Thanks for visiting Sandy - you know it was probably a crazy thing to do so soon after he died but I had this feeling that if I gave in to the grief on anything it would be a down hill slide. I still feel that way, like I could take to my bed and never get up again so I fight it and I fight it hard.
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