It's the weirdest thing, but I swear these turkey around our place seem to sense that Thanksgiving is just a week away. The week before the holiday, they veer from their normal routine and seem to just disappear. Every morning, like clockwork, they would come down the hill and across the road into our yard, peck around my bird feeders and then move on to the donkey's trough, then under the fence and up through our trees and back over the hill. But the week before Thanksgiving, you never see or hear them. It's like they know they need to make themselves invisible to hungry hunters looking for that perfectly fat Tom to put on the dinner table Thanksgiving Day.This morning on my way to work, I was remembering Thanksgiving's past. It seems like nearly all my memories of Thanksgiving growing up were spent with my Daddy, as that was our holiday to usually spend with him. He'd pick my sister and I up and usually we'd travel over the mountain to be with our then-Stepmother's family who had this huge horse ranch in Central Oregon. It was the grandest house we'd ever seen with acres of land we could snowmobile over, a big pond for ice skating and a gigantic barn full of beautiful Arabian horses. I remember the kitchen was huge and there was every kind of food you could imagine and it seemed like the house was full of hundreds of people all talking and laughing at once. The feast would last for what seemed like hours and I remember the dining room table was so long it probably sat at least 50 people! Even the kid's table was lavishly spread. We were always in awe of Thanksgivings there.
I remember one year, Daddy surprised us with a Thanksgiving trip to Hawaii! No one told us where we were going until we actually got on the airplane and we were so excited. That year, instead of the traditional turkey, we went to a Thanksgiving Luau on the beach where they roasted a whole hog in a sandy pit. The pig was covered with banana leaves and cooked real slow until it was melt-in-your-mouth tender and there were all kinds of different dishes and fresh fruits and desserts that we'd never had before. It was a welcomed change from our cold winter Thanksgivings in the mountains! We went from bundled-up-in-warm-coats weather, to bare-legged-on-a-sunny-beach weather.
The past few years, our Thanksgivings here at home have consisted of men and football. Usually my husband invites his best buddies over and I'm the only girl in a house full of men watching football in the living room and devouring my hard work. I love it though. Thanksgiving dinner is the one meal I actually enjoy cooking and I have a routine down pretty good after all these years. It's a far cry from my first attempt at cooking Sid a Thanksgiving meal in our first apartment more than 20 years ago. That year I forgot to take the neck and giblets out of the cavity of the bird and I used about 12 sticks of melted butter to keep my dressing from drying out in the oven. It was so salty we couldn't stand to eat it. And don't think Sid ever lets me forget it either. At least my dressing is edible now!
This year I'm so excited because my Sister and her Honey and my sweet Mama will be here to spend the holiday with us. Mom can help me in the kitchen and Tiff will bring a punkin pie and board games and it will be so much more fun than watching stupid old football on TV all day! We can build a fire out back if the weather is nice, and walk off our dinner back to the pond and visit. I can't wait! I've already got my list all made and everything planned out and am counting down the days for more Thanksgiving memories to come!
