Table for three, please!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  I’m sure yours is as abbreviated as ours, although I hope you are in a place where that is not the case.

In fifty years I have never NOT cooked something the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  But this year I stayed away from the kitchen, enjoyed brunch out with a girlfriend (yay!), ironed fabric and made toasted cheese sandwiches for dinner.  The kitchen sink was not piled high with dirty pots and pans and the refrigerator was only half full.

Weird.

But I was up early this morning to try a new recipe:  a turkey breast in the crock pot.  I tweaked the recipe a bit and will let you know how it turned out.

I am presently baking a frozen, store-bought pumpkin pie.  I can’t remember ever doing that for Thanksgiving, but…old dog, new tricks.

Rhode Island has experienced a turkey shortage.  A friend’s son went to six large grocery stores Tuesday in a panicked attempt to buy a turkey or a turkey breast.  Usually the stores are lowering prices and begging people to buy them, but not in 2020.  Why?  Because everyone needs their own turkey to cook because they are staying home.  Who knew?

Normally my friend Pat would have ordered a turkey ahead of time, but she has been in and out of the hospital (not with Covid) for the past two weeks and otherwise occupied.

Her son finally saw a new posting on Facebook and lined up half an hour early–along with many other panicked people– in front of a small local market in order to snag a turkey when they opened their doors.

I offered the other turkey breast in my freezer, but he found success at Confreda’s market.

So…our table is set and Nancy will join us for the day.  We will snack on guacamole and chips, drink wine and eventually–whenever the Crock Pot Turkey is cooked–eat dinner.  Angela told me about a wonderful movie, “My Octopus Teacher”, and we’re going to settle in on the couch to watch it after dinner.

I was a bit sentimental when setting the table this year.   The china is our wedding china.  The napkin was a gift from a much-loved and missed friend who gave me her grandmother’s set of twelve one Christmas.  The napkin rings were my mother’s.  The water goblets from my grandmother.  The gold-trimmed wine glasses were wedding gifts.

And as far as being grateful?  I’m grateful no one I know has had the virus.

I’m grateful I had the virus.

I’m grateful for the vaccines that will soon put all of our lives back to normal.

I’m very grateful for my family–all of you, near and far–and I’m so grateful for my friends who keep me smiling.

Enjoy the day–in that strange 2020 way!