More Than You Probably Want To Know About Holiday Hoo-Ha

Whew. The previously mentioned holiday hoo-ha has come and gone, at least for this round. Thanksgiving Day was a success--delicious food, happy family time, rituals re-enacted, traditions fulfilled. And speaking of rituals and traditions, it occurred to me that I should actually write down some of the ones our family repeats from year to year. (They seem obvious and a given now, but won't always…and since one of the points of all this bloggulation is to leave a record as I move through these days of my life, I might as well be explicit.) So get ready for detail…here it comes!

Thanksgiving day usually begins fairly early in the morning at my parents' house, with the making of stuffing (in preparation for stuffing the turkey). This year, because of kid wrangling, I didn't make it over to their house in time to help with the stuffing--I got there just as my mom was pouring the last bits of bread cubes into the giant pan full of other goodies (onions, garlic, liverwurst cubes, olives, artichoke hearts, capers, dried apricots, pecans, etc). But I did get to work right away on the next phase, which was cleaning out the turkey and stuffing it, then pouring a good pound or so of melted butter over it in preparation for the every-15-minutes basting process. We took a break for a big family scrambled egg breakfast (my brother and his family were staying at my mom's house this year--in years past they've been at my sister-in-law's family's Thanksgiving, so this was the first year in about a decade or so that my brother's been around for Thanksgiving Day), then more cooking. My 3 year old niece Zinnie helped her Grammy bake the traditional persimmon pudding, while my brother and I took an emergency trip to the store for the one extra egg we needed for the pudding (we'd inadvertently used too many in our scramble). Eli and his cousin Jonah were off entertaining themselves downstairs with TV and coloring and other activities during most of the cooking.

Then when it was Zinnie's nap time, Keri and I took the boys out of the house to a playground (Josh was home with Isaac while Isaac napped and Dave wanted to squeeze some work in while Zinnie napped and Mom and Dad showered and changed). It was another one of those beautiful clear sunny fresh Fall days, and despite a big splinter incident, we had a pretty calm, pleasant time at the playground. The boys are old enough now to not need playground supervision most of the time, so Keri and I just hung out in the sun and chatted and caught up, which was great. Then we rounded up boys and went back to my parents' house.

My mom had already put together the traditional garlic yams (GOD these are good…yams cut in half and slathered with olive oil and cut garlic and baked until soft and carmelized) and her usual inventive greens+fruit+nuts+sprouts salad, so all that remained before people came over was general clean up and the setting out of linens and dishes (we got to use my grandmother's beautiful black and gold egg-shell china, which I inherited after my Poppa died and am coming to treasure despite my initial reaction of "what the hell would I ever do with *that*?"). Then the rest of the guests started to arrive--my aunt and uncle and cousin, Josh's parents, Keri's cousin, a dear family friend. There were casual hors d'oeuvres and champagne to start everything off. As always, everyone hung out in the kitchen or the hallway/entryway between the kitchen and the living room, occasionally circulating over to the living room.

One of the remarkable things about our Thanksgiving is its utter lack of TV (and therefore sports). I love that about events at my parents' house. There's no group of guys watching the game in one room while the women cook in the kitchen; there are no kids watching the Macy's parade. There is only the hanging out and talking, and, of course, the eating (and the talking about the eating). We had 17 people in all (13 adults and 4 kids), so it wasn't a sit-down meal; as most events work out in my parents' house (because their dining room is really only big enough for maybe 10-12 people, even with an extra table added), it was buffet style, where a sumptuous spread is laid out on the dining room table, and people load up plates and find a spot to sit somewhere in the living room, balancing their plates and drinks as best they can on the variety of seating provided.

It is exactly this style of entertaining, with good food and good conversation given pride of place over fancy decorating and formal table etiquette, that I have inherited from my parents. Josh and I are able to throw together a dinner for 10 at a moment's notice, host a backyard barbeque for 20 with ease, or even put together our big Black Turkey holiday party with relatively little angst. We don't do fancy, but we do events easily and well, if I do say so myself. It has always been my goal--and I can see my parents direct influence in this--to have the kind of house where people are always welcome, and where you always get good food, good conversation, and interesting things to look at. Entertaining doesn't stress me out--I've done it enough now that it's like any other skill you've honed through practice: you can always have a better or worse run, but overall you know you won't fail.

Anyway, after dinner was carved (by ninja knife-master Josh) and consumed, the kids helped me whip the cream for dessert (with little Miss Zinnie doing most of the work--the boys got bored after a few turns each and bailed). Then it was time for pumpkin pie and persimmon pudding with humongous blobs of whipped cream on top, and a few petit fours (brought over by latecomers Dri and Jim). Then after that it was time to sit around going "ohhhhh I'm so full" and trying to deal with increasingly cranked out and chaotic kids. We did finally manage to get everyone rounded up and the kids into pajamas and left around 9 (well after kid bedtime), without too much goodbye drama--we knew we'd be seeing everyone again the next day for the traditional day-after-Thanksgiving leftover feast, after all.

Yesterday we got up and out of the house relatively early in the morning to meet up with my brother's family and go to the Dickens Christmas Fair. We stopped at Noah's and had bagel breakfast first, and then went off to the city for a few hours of Christmas-y Victoriana. It would have probably been more fun if Isaac hadn't been all tantrumy and clingy (teething? Constipation? general toddler-ness? Hard to tell) and Eli hadn't been either shy and clingy in the face of all those costumed people or wild and crazy from the mere presence of his cousin. But we did the rounds, saw our faire friends, and generally enjoyed the scene in between kid-wrangling moments.

The kids fell asleep in the car on the way home (thank goodness) but woke up again (bummer) when we stopped at home to pick up a few things before heading back over to my parents' house for Thanksgiving part II. (Isaac remained cranky for the next couple hours, but Eli was happy to be with his cousin so it kind of balanced out.) This was an even bigger event, probably around 20-25 people: the usual gang of my parents' friends (our pseudo-aunts and -uncles from when I was a kid) and some of their kids were there, plus my aunt and uncle and cousin and my brothers' family again, and us. I was greatly distracted with cranky Isaac for much of the evening, but it was still good to see everyone. I am always thankful for this group of extended family and friends--I can't imagine a life without this broad network of people who love me.

I'm getting tired so I won't go into too much detail about today, except to say that I had a quiet morning doing house chores and hanging out with the kids, and then Jonah came over for a quick game of D&D with us this afternoon while Isaac napped (and Zinnie napped back at my parents' house). Then my parents' and Dave, Keri and Zinnie came over and we all had a giant crab-fest dinner (yum). They all left around kid bedtime (but not without having done the dishes first, I love that about them!) and now Josh and are finally having a quiet evening of computer time and reading. Ahhhhh…back to "normal", at least for now. But hoo-ha is on the horizon, so we will enjoy this while we can.