As soon as Halloween is over, I look forward to Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday. No shopping. No wrapping. No costumes. Good mood. Good food. Great leftovers. We eat early and eat too much, then return to eat again. There’ll be a neighborhood stroll between snacks, but there will be more eating.
We’ll have delicious late-in-the-day sandwiches. We bring in special rolls (some of us love sourdough, others prefer wheat.) There’s nothing exotic about our Thanksgiving planned-over sandwiches, but there’s no other sandwich all year that tastes this good. Frank Bruni writes about his family’s similar sandwich tradition in Real Simple Magazine.
By dessert time, music starts. Christmas begins with Thanksgiving pie. Some years Johnny Mathis kicks off the season. Sometimes it’s Burl Ives, or Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown soundtrack.
Meanwhile, I’m already humming a chorus of “Count Your Blessings.” Some years there’s a need to start the humming earlier, a reminder to myself that no matter what else happened during the year, there are still reasons to be grateful.
(photo from Real Simple)
Yeah, like you said – Mathis during the holidays is absolutely essential in aiding the digestion of that 3rd “second helping” of pie. Also at my house, a mandatory spinning of Elvis’s first Christmas album is … (well) mandatory.
Actually, I may have some ol’ preacher play a few bars of “Momma Liked The Roses” at my dirt nap party. Following that — a little Johnny B. Goode as me and Elvis leave the building together. Hey, could be a very cool way to exit left.
I’ll give it some more thought. Meanwhile, enjoy that pie, guyz. : – )
Even in Southern California we celebrate Thanksgiving with a motif of brightly colored faux leaves fallen from non-existent oak trees via Michaels crafts stores. We cook turkey in shorts and flip-flops outside or in an air-conditioned kitchen. When the sun goes down we open the doors and windows, light a fire in the fireplace and fan ourselves, pretending that it is late Fall.
You do what you have to do.
I need Andy Williams and the Carpenters to kick off the Christmas season.
Oh yes – Andy and the Carpenters – have multiple CD’s of theirs and they will all be in play. I like the creative ways Southern Californians find to pretend the season actually changed. I am in favor of such illusions and/or self-delusions.