Thanksgiving #20

Well hello friends! Happy AA-“Almost Autumn”. I love this time of year, the cooler temps and soon-to-be brilliant foliage makes my heart content.

With the Fall, comes the holidays. In our small town, we have an annual fall festival called “Arkalalah” and it occurs the last weekend in October. It actually begins on the Wednesday before the last weekend and our downtown is turned into something magical, with food vendors, friends from out of town, a carnival, 3 parades, etc. It’s amazing! It’s our personal start to the Christmas season.

Then Thanksgiving. Our family does not indulge in the traditional Turkey Day meal. The biggest reason is that nobody really loves it, except me and the next reason is that nobody likes it leftover, including me. I’m the only sweet potato eater since my FIL passed away. And man, I love those things…smothered with brown sugar and marshmallows! The dressing and cranberry sauce round out my top 3 sides. Nobody else eats cranberry sauce either. Who are these people??

We usually have a kitchen full of steak and crab legs, or an Italian feast, or a Mexican spread. One year I made a mess of chicken&noodles then each person’s favorite dessert. We had: coconut cream pie, lemon meringue pie, chocolate silk pie, cherry cheesecake, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, brownies and pumpkin pie. As a pie lover myself, this was a glorious idea!

I have talked about my lack of Thanksgiving dinner ad nauseam to my SIL. Earlier this week, I celebrated my birthday and the gift I received from this SIL was….Thanksgiving dinner! She made turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes (be still my heart) and even put a can of cranberry sauce in the mix. It’s not what we ate for my birthday dinner but it sure is what I’m eating every day for lunch this week. It is SO good! I might need to put my Christmas tree up next week, I’ll be such in the spirit. Just kidding. Maybe.

I hope you summer lovers can find the beauty in the autumn. And I hope winter doesn’t come along too early. Let us fall in love with fall, I for one adore it. Thanks for reading my words, til next time…I’ll be talking to you!