Good Cheer

In our family the night before Thanksgiving is a simple meal of soup and salad with the family, and the night after Thanksgiving has become a simple meal of pasta, salad, bread, and leftover desserts with an ever-widening guest list. This year we had 21 for second night, nine more than Thanksgiving itself. It was a warm mixture of friends and family with guests from 7 to 76. After dinner the groups at the table amicably formed and reformed, conversations flowing in and out and up and down as people cleaned up, moved over, made coffee, checked on the kids, fetched dessert, took the dogs out, and opened more wine. No one was in a hurry to leave, and even when they did, folks stood around for a good twenty minutes saying their good byes. It was the perfect spirit with which to begin the holidays.

Remember Me to One WHo Lives There

After authoring this blog for so many years, it sometimes (ok, rather often) slips my mind as to whether or not I've written about something before. Many's the time, therefore, that I've used the search feature to double check a topic or a title. This afternoon, for example, I had the notion to write something about the bounty of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme I was able to harvest from my little garden and use to season the stuffing for dinner tonight. I was also thinking that I might tie in the idea of being especially thankful for actually growing a few other things for the meal, too, like the butternut squash, but I couldn't quite recall if I'd ever written about something like that. So, I searched up a few key words, and I found one entry. On November 23 of last year, I wrote about not being able to get ahold of gingerbread stout and trying instead a parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme saison instead. Good news, friends! I got the stout this year! One more thing to be thankful for, even if it wasn't my favorite.

Day of Rec

The day began with an intense game of Uno Stacko (a color-coded version of Jenga), and proceeded to pick-up sticks (We swear we won't cheat!), pentominoes, various Wii Fit challenges, and several rounds of Whatyamadrawit, all before breakfast.

Then we played the ukuleles for a while, practicing a duet of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. In between there were games on the iPads and games on our phones, and later in the day there was one lengthy hand of crazy Crazy Eights, and a few trivia challenges, more ukulele, and some guitar.

What can I say? Players gonna play!

Special Guest

My mom came to school today to borrow my car to go out to lunch with some friends. I expected her around 10:30, and I told my third period class that she was coming. Oh my! What excitement. 

"Can we see her?" they wanted to know.

"Well, yes," I answered, "she needs to get the keys from me."

"So she's going to come here? To this room?" someone verified.

"Yes," I said, "yes."

When the office called announcing her eminent arrival, the class waited wide-eyed, and students near the back craned their necks and stood on their toes. When at last she entered the room they greeted her with silly waves and giddy grins. "That's your mother?" one little girl demanded. "She looks more like your sister!" 

I took that as a compliment to my mom and gave her a little hug as I handed her the keys. "Awwww," the class sighed, and with that she was gone.

"Hey! Ms. S!" a student called. "Does that mean you're grounded?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Your mom took your car keys!"

Say Hello to Friends You Know

My mom and I have the tradition of going grocery shopping one of the afternoons before Thanksgiving. She always makes soup for everyone the night before the big day, and since she travels from Minnesota, it takes one big grocery trip to get the supplies for her meal.

This year, Heidi joined us, and the excursion took on a whole new vibe as we ran into former students and/or their parents at seemingly every turn. When at last we had loaded eight bags of groceries into the back of the car, she hopped in smiling. "Well!" she said. "That was a productive trip!"

We thought so, too, but not in quite the same way.

On Deck

After being a no-cruise person for 53 years, I find myself becoming a frequent cruiser. We enjoyed our Alaskan adventure in August considerably, and I have to confess that I really liked the cruise ship part, too. After 7 days aboard, I was a little sad to disembark and leave my little home away from home, with its compact cabin and endless ocean view.

Now it turns out that we're going to celebrate Heidi's parents' 50th anniversary with a Bahamas cruise in February. They left the research and planning to me, and I booked the trip today-- on the sister ship to ours. In fact, our staterooms are right around the corner from the one we had in August. The cafe is up one deck, the restaurant down a few, and we know right where to find the gym, the pool, and the promenade deck.

A day in Nassau and another in Grand Stirrup Cay? That's just gravy!

Pinch Hitting

I woke up with an unexplained hankering for date-nut bread this morning. I have a fantastic recipe that veganizes easily with excellent results. I love its quirks, too: you pour boiling water over the dates, sugar, baking soda, salt, and butter (or in this case, coconut oil), then beat in the eggs (this morning it was pumpkin and chia seeds), before folding in the flour and walnuts, and dumping it into the pan to bake for about an hour. It's quick, fun, and delicious.

I don't really need the recipe card because I've made it so often, but I always take it down from its place on the side of the refrigerator because my cousin Sandy gave it to me, and it is written in her own hand. It's been almost 16 years since she passed away, but seeing her writing and making that bread still gives me a warm feeling of connection.

In fact, Sandy used to bring her date-nut bread every Thanksgiving, along with some cream cheese to spread on it, and we ate it for breakfast the whole holiday week.

I guess that explains the hankering.