Thanksgiving Musings...

It's Thanksgiving once again.Seems like just yesterday it was last Thanksgiving. It's one holiday I have always loved/hated. Love the food. Love the idea of it. ANd hated...maybe too strong a word - maybe cringed about the fact that since I was actually born on Thanksgiving, and my birthday falls on Thanksgiving every few years or so, my mother always wanted to celebrate the two events together. My sister felt that her Thanksgiving became MY holiday, and was none too happy about it. Hard to blame her. Why did I get presents on Thanksgiving and she didn't??
The real reason, I figured out early on, was that celebrating the two holidays on the same day, saved my mother from making another celebration dinner, and it also gave my mother reason to retell her classic story of about how she had just slid the turkey into the oven when she went into labor with me and after all that culinary effort, couldn't even enjoy the meal!
I'm just now wondering why they didn't bring her a platter of food the next day, or if they did, whether she left that out of the story for greater dramatic impact. The story always ended with her half-jokingly deriding me for depriving her of her Thanksgiving dinner.
So today I puttered around our dysfunctional kitchen, making organic sweet potato, carrot and clementine pie; a big 16lb turkey stuffed with lots of herbs and cranberries and walnuts; a bowl of perfect, tiny fresh brussel sprouts which I picked up at Trader Joe's still attached to the stem - and I'm not sure what for dessert yet. I did remember to get lots of wine.
Thanksgiving is an open house in the evening for us. We spend the day getting it together, then are surprised by who of our friends show up. Our daughter and some of her friends usually appear. Various friends needing some relaxation after a day spent with family often show up to nibble and drink. My sister and her dog will be here. And some of our studio staff may drop in as well.
It's a happy Thanksgiving here today.We have amazing friends. We love our work, and the studio is growing in every way. We work with and learn from the most brilliant event artists around and are grateful to the wonderful people who hire us to document their lives and celebrations. We are thankful, beyond measure, for everyone who has touched our lives and for the countless ways in which we are blessed.