thxgiving
It seems like just yesterday was early October and I was eager for the leaves to change colors. Now Thanksgiving has come and gone, I've already begun Christmas shopping, and ate my first candy cane of the season (the first of many, I'm sure).
In many ways, I prefer Thanksgiving to Christmas. Thanksgiving doesn't have nearly the hype that December 25th holiday brings. One often finds more hospitable weather -- and more hospitable attitudes of the general public -- on the fourth Thursday of November. The day comes without gobs of money spent on gifts no one really needs; instead, the day is unabashedly devoted to food we don't need. Some point to this as exemplar of American excess in an increasingly overweight society. I say bullfrog hockey to that. One day a year to indulge in gluttony with absolutely no inhibitions won't kill us.
American Thanksgiving does not have to be about slaughtering Native Americans if we do not let it be such, any more than Halloween has to be about Druids or Easter has to be about pagan gods. Thanksgiving is a time for us to be thankful for both what we have and who we have; it just happens that this includes a celebration of "the harvest," which today is applied to the modern grocery-store-as-food-source system as best we can. Much of the traditional Thanksgiving stories about Pilgrims, The "First" Thanksgiving, Miles Standish, Squanto, et al. are folklore at best. If we can't even get the positives of American Thanksgiving traditions right, there's no reason we need to go finding negatives. Just accept the modern American Thanksgiving for what it is.
{steps down off soapbox}
Now then, on to the Bird family traditions: our Thanksgiving begins at my aunt's house, where we are treated to turkey sausage, cranberry-almond coffee cake, cinnamon-apple muffins, fruit salad, freshly-squeezed orange juice, and pancakes made with pumpkin pie spice. Dinner takes place in late afternoon at our house, courtesy of Birdmom, who lavishes upon us a feast of roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, french-cut green beans with almonds, dinner rolls, a relish tray, and cranberry salad. And let's not forget the turkey cookies we make every year using a cookie cutter and brushed-on food-coloring+milk colors. I put my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree to good use by arranging a centerpiece and folding the napkins. You can see our extravagant Thanksgiving table here. The cornucopia is made from breadstick dough, and we've been using it for probably seven years now, but it's finally starting to fall apart, so we'll have to make a new one next time.
Courtesy of Parade magazine, my mom tried some new recipes this year, including the maple bourbon turkey glaze and the ginger cranberry relish, both of which were delish. The gravy, made with drippings from the turkey roasting pan, was probably the best gravy I've ever had. (Hint: it's the bourbon.)
Dessert brings a choice of pumpkin or apple-cranberry pie. This year we also experimented with adding cinnamon to french vanilla ice cream, which went well with the sugary caramel crust drizzled on the apple-cranberry pie.
Thanksgiving also ushers in the season of Christmas, and despite the best efforts of the retail industry, it provides a barrier to keep us from diving into The Holiday Season™ too quickly. Christmas hypes up the gift exchange with lights and trees and carols and parties and alleged goodwill toward all, only to have it all come crashing down within a few hours' time on December 25th. Thanksgiving isn't nearly so pretentious, and thus isn't such a letdown when it's over.
So what am I thankful for, a week late now? I'm thankful that I have such loving and supportive parents that still allow me to live with them at the ripe old age of 25. I'm thankful that I have friends I can share a plate of teriyaki wings with or go to a movie or take a trip to Cedar Point or ring in the new year with. I'm thankful that, in the 1970s, some folks in Italy developed the ABVD regimen for treating Hodgkin's Lymphoma, with an 85-90% survival rate. In that vein (harhar!) I'm also thankful that I live so close to the Cleveland Clinic, one of the top cancer hospitals in the country. And, I'm thankful that we've made it both a tradition and a federal holiday to reserve at least one day of the year to remember and acknowledge the blessings of our lives.
