Beadlizard

Thanksgiving

I am thankful for my family, with whom we had a lovely dinner at SIL's today.  My brother's turkey was perfect.  As I was cooking today, I thought about past Thanksgivings and about what made this year different.  It seemed so easy this year, why?

1.  SIL.  She is an excellent planner, a great hostess, and she herds us with tact and grace.

2.  Modern kitchen tools:  Cuisinart, Microplanes, and an Oxo salad spinner.  Garlic and olive oil puree.  Asiago ribbons for the salad.  Five pounds of string beans and heaps of lettuce washed, quickly.

3.  Public transit.  In Montana I had to grow my own ingredients or plan way ahead since we made the trek to the city for supplies on a monthly basis, if that.  Here, I walk a few blocks or hop on a bus and I can buy just about any foodstuff known to man.  I'd still rather live in the country, but it sure is convenient to live in a well-organized city.

Need to go make DH's low-carb pie.  Oh, showed Aunt C. how I kitchener at SIL's and she showed me her latest sock designs.  DH is wishing the green cabled STR pair had been his size...

Ten on Tuesday -- Guests for Thanksgiving

I don't normally do Ten on Tuesday, but Carole had another good idea:  10 Guests (real or fictional) You'd Like To Invite For Thanksgiving Dinner.  DH and I started talking about it and he maintained that the people should have good conversation, decent personalities, and a language in common (his all spoke French, which works well in our house).  Thomas Jefferson was on his list.  I took General Patton and Genghis Khan off my list.  Bother.

I thought about listing my favorite romance authors, or my favorite characters from their books, the list of generals whose campaigns I've read about,early music composers whose music I love playing, Julia Child and Margaret Thatcher and Rich Little, but there are so many people whom I cherish and am unable to visit that they became my list.  An asterisk means the person no longer exists in the usual plane.

People I haven't seen in a long time and miss:  Great-grandmother* & her great-great uncle the pirate* because he would have been on Ggm's list, Krissy, Aubyn & Dave*, Alta*, Tami, Baldo* & Geanie*, and I'd better use slot 10 for my dad because he'd never forgive me if I got Baldo to rematerialize and didn't have Dad over, too.

Krissy was a friend when we were children, and I've seen her brother but not Krissy in way too many years.  Our dads used to take us on pishing trips and backpacking in the mountains and Krissy kept me laughing the whole time.  Aubyn lives across the creek from my farm and her husband Dave was my buddy and mentor.  Alta lived on our block in Utah and taught me how to separate irises.  Tami was a friend in high school in Utah who went on to become a geneticist like her mom.  Baldo & Geanie were magnificent friends of my parents when I was young, larger than life.  Her needlepoint changed the way I thought about textiles.

For supper I would fix a classic meal, since this is fantasy, not the diet meal we're actually having this year.  Roast turkey with a sourdough and thyme stuffing.  Mashed potatoes and gravy.  Parker House rolls made with extra butter and cream.  Homemade raspberry jam.  Cranberry sauce.  English peas.  Butter lettuce salad with balsamic dressing, slices of avocado, and a dusting of grated asiago on top.  Pumpkin pie, Indian pudding with vanilla ice cream, cranberry-orange bread.  Maybe a spiced cranberry-orange sorbet, too.  Egg nog, sparkling cider, and coffee with dessert.  And flowers for the table -- Ggm would like that.

Darning Egg?

Darning egg, where are you?  I checked your bin and your friends miss you and say they haven't seen you since before the last time we moved...  [Rattle hopes you're having fun on walkabout, btw.] 

I looked in the fabric closet but you weren't burrowing in DD's Japanese cottons again.

I checked the yarn basket by the couch, but you weren't snuggling with the Trekking.

I'm a little worried.  Are you asleep in the toe of an old sock somewhere in the stash?  I even went out to the garage and contemplated moving boxes so I could check the bins (I know how you adore bombyx sliver), but I was thoroughly intimidated by the prospect and decided to let you have your adventure.

In the meantime, I'm going to use an assortment of odd bits, a spindle whorl, the handle of my wood hairbrush, etc., and darn some socks.  My right heels and DH's right toes are all going.  Maybe when I'm done you will reappear?  Please?