Twas a Different Thanksgiving

Here's a Thanksgiving Day to Remember. At least for us. It started early and cold. The promised blizzard had turned out to be much ado about virtually nothing. The sky was frigid blue. We had dismantled our sleeping arrangements, a single bed with a trundle underneath for the one who abandoned the coziness of the single bed first. We had also acquired a new mattress with a Stickley headboard, the latter to be delivered in December. This purchase freed up the trundle arrangement and Rachel decided she wanted the whole thing for their use. Fine! Grand! Happy to be of assistance! So early on Thanksgiving morn, we packed the whole disassembled trundle package into the back of the Explorer. Amazingly enough, it all fit. The only problem was we had to skunch the driver and passenger seats so far forward, transferring foot from accelerator to brake pedal proved problematical, perhaps even dangerous. However, we've always loved risk and adventure. Also, there was virtually no traffic so the arrangement was deemed moderately safe.

We arrived at Rachel's at about 10:00am, unloaded the beds, transferred them inside their newly rearranged home, and set them up. Troy had the proper tools and I had sufficient memory to recall how to reassemble. The left over parts could be numbered on one hand, an accomplishment in its own right. Rachel and Troy did a great job of rethinking furniture and kid placements so every one had a good bed and there was more room for play and alone time. We finished up about 12:00 and headed back home. The mere thought of triptophan, the chemical sleeping agent in turkey, put both of us out for about an hour. We got up in time to make our 2:00 pm dinner appointment.

Since we had already had the traditional Thanksgiving meal about two weeks ago, we decided to do something a little different. Go to a restaurant. Rachel called several places, Mimi's, Marie Callender's, ChuckupOrama, etc., but all were fully booked. Realizing that there may have been some Italians who came to the new world early and even participated in the first Thanksgiving meal with Squanto and his fellow, soon to be displaced or obliterated owners of the American continent, we decided to honor them by going to an Italian place. Good Choice!! They had a traditional thanksgiving feast of turkey and all the fixings. Or one could choose from their standard Italian menu. Rachel and her family chose the former. Kathryn and I chose the latter. Did I mention they serve family style. You tell them how many want what and they bring bowls of the selected items, sufficient for all. Kathryn and I chose Italian. We also ordered appetizers, a wonderful biscuit drenched in garlic and also deep fried calamari. We knew the latter was immune from attack by the youngsters. Turns out Romney and Chase are fish folks, and apparently adopted, given Troy's aversion to anything that spent a significant part of its life in water, specially salt water. Romney and Chase devoured the calamari. I may have grabbed one piece or at least tried to grab one. No matter, they enjoyed it. We all shared a wonderful salad of romaine, granny smith apples, toasted walnuts, craisens, gorgonzola cheese and a light italian vinaigrette. It was wonderful. Then while the traditionalists enjoyed the turkey, Kathryn and I had our veggie Pizza for two, very tasty, just like at that honored first Thanksgiving on Plymouth Rock, which is reported to be quite small, so maybe they took turns. Margaret joined us for dessert of pumpkin filled cannoli which they claimed was delicious. Given a much trumpeted lack of smell and thus taste, I decided to skip the calorie laced confection. End of a wonderful meal and all behaved well, even Troy.

The concluding event in our celebration was a movie. Rachel had purchased tickets for Tangled, the new Disney movie about the complete and newly fabricated story of Rapunzel and her long golden locks. This was consistent with our Italian theme, since I recall hearing someplace that Rapunzel was first told in Italy and may have even been shared from the rock in Plymouth on the first day, though I'm really not sure about that. Nonetheless, I had earlier seen a podcast from Science Friday on NPR about how the movie computer technicians had developed mathematical equations to properly duplicate the motion of hair. So we all went to the movie. We had to walk around a bit first before we were allowed into the theatre. It was bitter, bitter cold outside so K&L bore what we could, then went inside the Gateway and used the warm bathrooms for quite a while.

The movie was outstanding, fun, warm, playful, just a great time. Emma managed quite well. Didn't hear a peep from Chase and Romney. I got leg pain because of the odd seating arrangement so I spent most of the time standing in the aisle, which was fine. It was really an enjoyable movie. There were no mentions of Italian roots, but the massive villains with heavy black beards surely were or southern European descent.

So, how did the day stack up? At dinner, we remembered Thanksgivings of our varied pasts. This one was memorable and holds up well when contrasted with those of many years ago. We will probably do it again.