Yes, it's true. In fact, right now I'm finishing off a small piece of cherry pie, one of pumpkin pie, some sweet potato casserole and cheese cake. Not sure, but I don't think I've really eaten dessert since July when we were on vacation.
But it's Thanksgiving. And my feet hurt. Pretty sure I logged 15-16 hours of cooking in the last two days and loved every minute of it! With 'dinner' time set at 1 PM today, I was still in my pajamas just 20 minutes prior to that. Hair was a mess and I had on no makeup. Pretty much everyone pitched in as it was crunch time!
One o'clock and it was show time! As our guests arrived, Pippa the Pomeranian couldn't have been more excited. Jumping up and down and reminding me of the donkey in the Shrek movie saying "Pick me! Pick me!" I grabbed her and held her while the blessing was said and people got their food. She finally had to go play in the backyard so we could eat in peace.
23 pound turkey. About 100 hot rolls. Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings. Aunt Nadine's baked beans. Mom Pum's sweet potato casserole. Memories. Memories of Thanksgivings when I was a kid and we would gather at my dad's parents' house. The table would be full of all the traditional foods and favorites. The blessing would be said and Papaw would fill his plate first. He would sit down at the head of the table----the only person usually to actually sit at the table because there was no room for eating due to the abundant amount of food----and enjoy his meal complete with his cherry Kool-Aid as the rest of us circled the table, and him, filling our plates. After dinner came the most exciting part to me. Time to draw names for Christmas!
After my paternal grandparents were gone, we would gather at mom's. My grandma, Mom Pum, would always bring my two favorite dishes----chocolate chess pie and sweet potato casserole. My brother and brother-in-law and I would fight over that chocolate chess pie! All of us claimed it was made for just us. So Mom Pum or mom started making two so the three of us would be sure to have enough.
A few years ago I decided to start our own traditions with Thanksgiving. I absolutely love cooking our Thanksgiving meal. And I've learned to be flexible as we never seem to know if we will have just us or many more or if we will eat at home or at a fire station like last year. This year we ate at home. And it was nice. But I need to tell you what happened about 6 weeks ago.
We had just received some not so great news and were processing it when I received yet another blow. As I walked across the lobby of the bank where I work, a new customer looked up at me. I walked over to greet him. He told me that one of my favorite customers was going to die that day. She had been sick for just a few months but it was her time. He then handed me an envelope that read "Dinner on me, Polly". I began to sob as I saw the $100 bill inside. He hugged me and said he was fulfilling her deathbed wishes. But how could someone care that much about me that they would think of me as they were dying?
I pondered over the next couple of weeks about how to spend the $100 on dinner and decided it would buy either our family Thanksgiving or Christmas meal. Last week I attended Polly's memorial service. My new friend, her neighbor who had brought me that special gift, spoke of how Polly had requested that he and his wife look after her special needs son after she was gone. She wasn't even sick when she asked them. And that was last Thanksgiving. I knew at that moment that Polly was buying our family Thanksgiving Dinner this year.
As I cooked our meal the last couple of days I thought of Thanksgivings past. Of family and friends, old and new. I thought of Polly's last Thanksgiving and how no one had any idea she would be in Heaven this soon. And I thought about how precious time is. How we need to take in all that God has blessed us with and not just skim over the top. Really live. And occasionally, eat dessert.
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