Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Confession Wednesday: Thanksgiving Edition
Did you freak out the year your neighbor cooked a "turducken" because you thought they'd cooked a pregnant turkey?
Do you find yourself topping off your wine glass as Uncle Fred tells THAT story yet again?
It's Confession Wednesday: Thanksgiving Edition!
The weird thing is that I had a hard time thinking of some juicy tidbit to confess with regards to one of the best holidays ever.
(Last night, my mom brought up the fact that I forced myself to eat olives for YEARS because I liked sticking them on my fingers, but wasn't allowed to do that unless I ate them. It's a true story, but hardly interesting enough to write an entire post about.)
(I really do hate olives, though.)
One of my first Thanksgiving memories is from 1st grade. I had been bumped from kindergarten to 1st grade in the 6th week of the school year, and only weeks before Thanksgiving. I was a tiny 5 year old and, without any sort of background, was ordered to choose either a Pilgrim or an Indian. I didn't know what my teacher was talking about, so, under duress, I picked Indian because I knew what those were. I didn't really know much about the Pilgrims, except that it took all of three minutes to realize that I had made the wrong choice as the Pilgrims had cuter hats.
When my parents split up, Marc and I switched off the holidays between parents. Thanksgiving with my mom always meant the fancy dishes. Thanksgiving with my dad usually meant relegation to the kids' table. Of course, when those years meant going to my dad's parents' house, that also included my grandpa's homemade Split Pea Soup. There is nothing better in the world than my grandpa's secret recipe, handed down only to my dad. Seriously. It's so good that people who don't even like split pea soup crave this stuff. I'm guessing one of the ingredients must be crack or something.
I remember the first turkey I ever cooked all by myself-ish. I was a missionary in the frozen tundra of Québec and a nice couple in the ward gave us a turkey they weren't planning to use. It was January or February, so not exactly Thanksgiving, but Sister Angel and I put all of our combined years of watching our moms do it--
("Are we supposed to leave this plastic bag thingy inside?")
("You're putting BUTTER on it??")
--and cooked up one of the best turkey dinners in the history of the world. Thanks, Mom!
I thought that since I don't have any really good Thanksgiving Confessions, I'd just express a few words of gratitude instead.
I'm thankful for my family. Even though I sometimes feel left out because I don't have a spouse and/or children to bring along, I'm thankful for a family that lets me make the teams uneven.
I'm thankful to have a job. It's not the best job in the world, and there are days I look in the mirror expecting to see large bald spots from tearing my hair out by the handfuls, but I'm working and earning enough to pay my bills and I have health insurance. It's a good thing.
I'm thankful for my friends. We're all busy and don't see each other often enough, but I'm grateful for every one of them.
I'm thankful for awesome TV shows like FlashForward, V, and The Big Bang Theory. In my over-scheduled life, I need a mental break!
I'm thankful for Chinese broccoli. I'm not allergic to that kind!
I'm VERY thankful for four-day weekends, time to sleep in, and TURKEY.
I hope y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you get to spend it how YOU want and eat what YOU want.
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"You know what they say. If you don't have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me."
~Clairee Belcher, Steel Magnolias