Three Thanksgivings

Three is a lot of Thanksgivings but we enjoyed all of them, especially since we had a six-and-a-half day weekend in which to entertain ourselves.  The first Thanskgiving, on Thursday, was at Danny's sister Jill's house.  I brought mashed potatoes and acorn squash vinaigrette, and made the gravy when the time came.  There were a a couple people there I didn't know, and in introducing ourselves, we found we were relatives:  one that I spoke to was my husband's sister's husband's sister's husband's daughter from his first marriage.  It reminded me of Spaceballs.  Dinner was lovely and so was the after-dinner music, provided by the houseful of accomplished folk musicians in attendance, including Danny on recorder, Kari on mountain dulcimer, and Aaron on drums.  Jill's husband Tony is a fine singer and songwriter; among other things, he adapted (and copyrighted) "Michael Row The Boat Ashore," and taught it to Pete Seeger.

Second Thanksgiving was at my friend Sam's house, with her family and several other colleagues, along with some of her relatives and a collection of friends of hers with young kids.  I contributed three kinds of cranberry sauce.  Jordan was the oldest child there by a couple of years and thus the ringleader, a role he enjoys.  We enjoyed our children's independence... all these other parents were there with their toddlers and infants, juggling plates and spilled drinks, and there we were lounging around, carrying on sustained conversations and occasionally offering to help.

Third Thanksgiving was with friends from Aaron's school, a pair of families we enjoy a lot.  We all have kids who are very well matched in age and temperament, and the adults like each other too, so it's always fun to get together.  I brought three kinds of pies:  a pumpkin, an apple galette, and a cranberry-almond-caramel tart.  Dinner was delicious and even more relaxed than at Sam's; we have graduated to actually having a kid table, as you can see, and at some point the kids run off on their own, leaving us to linger over our wine.  Wow!

I am amazed, and so grateful, that we have such a wealth of family and friends here.  What a great place to live.