Giving Thanks

It was Thanksgiving today. This has brought several pertinent things to attention:

1. My niece is very cute.
2. My nephew is pretty cute too.
3. Many of the members of my extended family can cook extremely well. Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful.
4. Folks in my family get along with each other pretty well, and everyone hates leaving when we get together. This is a good thing.

Susan tells me that I should inform Cavan that his trip to Russia was clearly ill-advised, as it has caused him to miss out on a very large chocolate trifle. It was, indeed, a particularly pleasant chocolate trifle, complete with cream, nuts, cherries, chocolate cake, grated chocolate, and loads of chocolate pudding. Cavan, if you're reading this, consider yourself informed.

Incidentally, Thanksgiving at my house is a bit of an amalgam of traditions. It's not a holiday in South Africa, so our family customs had to be pretty much invented on the fly. Turkey with cranberry sauce is good stuff, but for variety's sake, this year we threw in a ham as well. Why not? Mashed potatoes are pleasant enough, but roast potatoes are much nicer, so we do roast potatoes and yams and skip the mashed variety. Stuffing seems like a good idea, but it cooks so much better when you cook it outside of the turkey--and when you do it that way, you can make enough for everyone to eat a lot of it. My mother's stuffing-like invention involves adding a lot of sausage, and is actually one of the main dishes. And of course, there was dessert.

Now, I have nothing against pumpkin pie. They fed it to me in school, and I learned to really enjoy the stuff. But, and this is important, my parents don't really like it. Blasphemy, I know, but they're not going to serve something they don't like. So instead of pumpkin pie, we had to settle for, well, chocolate trifle and lemon meringue pie and custard and some kind of chocolate-and-coconut covered marshmallow things that Elaine assures me are very similar to some favorite South African candy that I don't remember too well. I say "settle," but I think we win on that count.

I think an easy way of describing the meal is sort of a cross between a traditional American Thanksgiving and a British-style Christmas dinner. We just took all the bits we liked from both and mixed them together until you're so stuffed that you have to sort of waddle out the door as you're leaving.

Thanks to all who prepared, those who came, and those who hung around afterward and kept things interesting. It was a great day.