Ahhh, the kick-off to the holiday season. And what a way to get it started! It makes you happy to be a New Worlder. (Canada gets it.)
Thanksgiving in Maine is even better, because it starts on Tuesday evening. Pie Night at the church. It's a beautiful thing. Pies pies pies. This year, I decided I would pull a MariLou and make a pie for everyone in my family. I thought I'd make some of them for Pie Night and some for Thanksgiving. So I asked Mike what he wanted and he lead with "Boston cream pie," followed by, "or that strawberry pie Grammy made a while back. That was amazing." So, a layer cake or a pie made from November (i.e. tasteless) strawberries. Thanks. The kids asked for an Oreo pie. I made the Boston cream and the Oreo pie (which my kids didn't like) and a sausage pie. Thankfully they were all eaten. Next year I think I'll just make one or two simple pies for Pie Night and the rest on Thanksgiving.
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| The remains of a million blueberries. |
Last night I made our pies, a lime cheese pie and pumpkin. I also prepped the fruit for the fruit bowl. I was prepared for doing Thanksgiving like I remember my mum doing Thanksgiving: getting up at 5:30 or 6, setting up the table with the fruit bowl, drinks, and even deviled eggs until I realized we had no mayonnaise. Then setting to work, Mike peeling, me cooking, non-stop until 2 pm when we would sit to a feast and subsequently crawl to the couch/bed/dog bed where we could sleep off the tryptophan.
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| One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions in my parents' home was breakfast/brunch. It was a large fruit basket filled with pears, oranges, bananas, grapes, nuts, apples, and a big bowl of sherbet punch and a platter of deviled eggs. This being our first Thanksgiving at home, I was excited to do the same for my kids--it was a bigger hit than I thought. Even Madie (my picky eater) enjoyed it! |
As it turned out, I had large stretches of nothing. I did get up early, and I'm glad because I had left the kitchen a wreck from the night before, so I cleaned up and set up the table. But when I turned to decide what to do next, I realized, I couldn't do much for a few hours. I didn't really start doing anything until 11. We did end up eating a little later than I anticipated--3:40 or so--but it wasn't bad.
When they weren't busy cracking nuts, the kids spent the majority of their time in the basement learning chess. They've been asking to learn, and Mike finally gave in. He taught them checkers and then Chinese checkers a couple weeks ago and they have loved it. Checkers is especially nice since they can play it themselves with no "advisors." Every day this week they have gone down to play checkers--Finn and Madie will keep busy at it for an hour or more!
At the beginning of the chess lesson today, I overheard Mike trying to get them calm enough to explain the rules. They were both very excited he had agreed to teach them. Finn asked, "Do you get to jump people and take their pieces?" Mike responded with a yes, to which Finn exclaimed, "Yes! I love this game!"
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| Not everyone was playing chess. Obviously, these two were at a rave and just about passed out from the excitement. |
While the turkey was roasting, I took the kids out to gather clippings and trimmings for some wreaths. We were out for maybe 15 minutes, but they loved it. They kept saying, "This is so much fun! I love this! This is a great Thanksgiving activity!" I'm glad, because Madie especially was not very happy to learn we had decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year and go up to my grandmother's on Saturday instead. She was set for a dull day, indeed.
After we had plated the turkey and used what we needed of the drippings for gravy, I prepped Elvis' Thanksgiving dinner.
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| He is always extra good when he gets a special treat. He knows we'll make him start over if he jumps before he's told. |
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| Haha! |
Madie always groans when we light candles to eat. I'm not exactly sure why, but it makes her the only child I know who doesn't like eating by candlelight. Maybe it started after I told her the story of Kaitlyn melting her ear almost off when her hair caught fire at Christmas Eve when she was a kid. I don't know.
Finn told me, not for the first time this week, he was thankful for "friends and lots of toys to give to them, because we have too many toys." Amen, Son.
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| I thought for a while of dressing up--I like to dress up for occasions like this, but often I don't just out of convenience. Obviously, convenience won out again this year. |
After dinner we went for a flashlit stroll through the woods. Finn was interested in going at first, but as soon as we started he asked how long we would be. I said not long, and he suggested that we walk until we come to the "rocky path, then turn back." That "rocky path" is a gravel road, big enough for two cars to carefully pass, and meticulously maintained by the club groundskeeper. We walked all the way down that road to the club house that overlooks the ocean. There we turned off our lights and let our eyes adjust. Madie was particularly enthralled with this. She was amazed that our eyes could actually work fairly well in the dark. She kept telling me about all the colors in the sky. "I see green and purple and gold." Mike and I agreed on the description "overcast," but to each her own.
When we spotted our house lights from the woods, Finn--who, at 5 minutes in, told us (not whining, just informing) he was tired and hungry and thirsty--added to his gratitude. "You know what I'm thankful for? Our house. I'm really glad we don't have to live outside in a cave." Again, man, I'm with you.
When we returned it was pie time, then Harry Potter and baths and a final game of chess. Finn and Mike played downstairs and I asked Madie if she wanted to play against me on the tablet. "Oh! Sure! That'll be fun! You know how to play?"
"Yes, I know how to play." After the game, the 7-year-old novice told me, "Oh, man! You know, you were good. You were better than I thought you'd be." Thanks, Madie. You're a great coach.
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| Look at this face? |
