Thanksgiving Feast on Sunday

My brother Tom was in a wheelchair more than 18 years, so I had got quite used to making a turkey meal for holidays and taking it over to his apartment to share the meal with him. (I knew he did not cook, and ate a lot of ordered-in-pizza.)

During that time I often thought of my single friends, some older than I, who have no family to go home to for a holiday. I told myself that if it were possible for Tom to get up the steps and around the corners at my entrance, I might try to have him come over and also invite some of these other friends as my guests. Since he passed on, April of 2019, I have tried to make a point of inviting a few friends over for the holiday meal of Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving.

You may recall my description of our Christmas feast. I think we were 8 people around a door that I got a male friend to bring up from the basement and we used it to join my desk and my small square dining table. (We decided to risk COVID for an in-person feast; as the year before we were advised to only celebrate with those who lived in our home, so I had delivered semi-hot turkey meals to about 6 or 7 friends).

I spent Easter alone this spring.

Actually, I'd forgotten about Thanksgiving this month until I got an email from missionary friends who had just gone back to their field in Bolivia. Dorothy mentioned that they would miss enjoying thanksgiving with their family and friends in Canada.

I gasped and checked my calendars; sure enough! It was to happen this past Monday, the 10th!

So I went out to buy a turkey and a few extra vegetables, and then started to phone some single friends to see if they were free to come over on Sunday evening for a Thanksgiving meal. Several had already made other plans, but two were available and glad to promise to come.

I set aside Saturday for some housecleaning (leaving the garden clean-up that I'd begun to work on once my coughing let up). Then on Sunday afternoon, after a quick stir-fry lunch, I got started on the preparations for the Thanksgiving feast.

The Chocolate pie with cream cheese would need time to set, so I got that ready first. Then I stuffed the defrosted turkey with onions and apples, and put spices all over the skin, then put it into the oven. (Considering it's weight, it would need at least 2 hours). Then I got to work on the stuffing, as one friend could not come because of a house-bound daughter, but he would come by on Monday morning to pick up some left-overs for them to warm up, and he really wanted stuffing. He even brought me a bag of toasted bread crumbs to help out, since I had not planned on that. I ended up making a crockpot full - far more than we could all eat! (I'll have to figure out what to do with the left-overs yet).

I got the veggies in a pot, but since it wouldn't take long to heat a cheese sauce over them, I left them waiting while I peeled almost half of a large soup-pot full of potatoes for the mashed potatoes.

By this time I had been on my feet in the kitchen, working steadily for about 3 hours or more, and my back was beginning to whine that I should go sit down. When I realized that it was going on 4:30 (I'd told the guests to come for 5 pm), and that I still needed to take out the turkey and cut up the meat for the platters, and make the gravey... I decided against a sit-down break, and kept working.

Both guests arrived before 5 but Patricia, who had brought a tossed salad, came to help in the kitchen and together we got the gravy made, and all the food put on the table.

I think everything went over well, but maybe the biggest hit was the chocolate pie with big scoops of frozen yogurt (which is like ice cream) cappicino-flavourted with chocolate bits. All 3 of us had a second piece!

Patricia did the dishes while I put the leftovers into containers and the fridge, then we sat down to visit a while longer.

In the future I will try to get some dishes made a day ahead. Otherwise, it was all good!

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