I'm talking
about the big Thanksgiving dinner!
I know it's all about being together and about
remembering how important it is to be thankful. We will no doubt take turns
expressing our thankfulness around the table and each expression will be
different and it’ll be wonderful. We’ll play games and go for a walk and there
will be great commotion with conversation, kids and dogs.
However, our
family - the 8 of us - are having pizza!
That's okay, right?! There is no rule about having a big dish like
turkey as far as I know.
But, I'm
wondering, when and how did it come to this? When did I give over?
It was not
too many years ago when the kids were small and we were fortunate enough to
live on 5 acres of land, when pretty much all the meal was homemade and home
grown just like it was in the good ol’ days of my childhood. A few times we had
turkeys raised by my dad. Stuffing was made from leftover bread gathered up and
dried in the oven. Potatoes, carrots, rutabaga, Brussels sprouts, onions, peas,
corn, whatever vegetables chosen were definitely from the garden out back. Same
with the pickles. And pumpkin pie? We grew the pumpkins, roasted, mashed and
seasoned them and of course made our own pie crust. Whipped cream was heavy cream - from a farm
if possible - whipped by my little mix master. And it was served to a big bunch
of people who crammed elbow to elbow into our little dining area.
Back to the
current Thanksgiving celebration. We'll phone in the pizza order. Everyone can
have their flavour favourite. And we
bought ready made chicken wings that will just need to be warmed up in the
oven. We bought a veggie platter and a container of fruit ready to serve. The
pumpkin pie? Bought of course at the supermarket. And the whipped cream? In a
can - aerosol.
In my defence
I could claim weariness in well doing. Over the past 45 years, except for a
handful of times, I have been responsible for Thanksgiving (and Christmas)
turkey dinners and that leads me to surmise I've wrestled around 80 birds into
and out of the roasting pan. But I've enjoyed every one of those dinners. They have all been worth-while. You too by any chance?!
I'm sure
we'll have a wonderful time together and be thankful but I'm not sure we know
how thankful we should be when we haven't watched with wonder as the plants
grew from seed to harvest. Haven't weeded and watered and cared for them as
they grew. Because we haven't harvested,
and washed and peeled and diced and cooked and mashed and dirtied our fingers
and aprons in the mess, we won’t have worked at the meal with our hands and
hearts.
I really
think we're missing something precious! I'm so thankful that I had that home
grown era in my life. Latterly of course vegetables for dinner have had to come
from the store, but still needed peeling, dicing, and cooking and the turkey still needed to be in the oven early in the morning. The fragrance of all that cooking was a big part of the day.
What about
next year? Have I stepped over the edge forever? Is this the new reality?
Anything wrong with a turkey-absent Thanksgiving meal?
I'm just confused!
The
puzzling question remains - when did the pizza for Thanksgiving idea become thinkable?!
P.S. Post-Thanksgiving dinner update. We did have a wonderful time together. We did
express our thankfulness to God and to each other. We enjoyed the food and fun
and I almost didn’t miss the turkey till next day when the leftovers were pizza
slices instead of turkey for casseroles and soup!
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