A Holiday Abroad

Fast approaching the National Day of Thanksgiving, although it’s a little hard to be thankful for the financial news in the past 2.5 months. But, of course, there are many other things to be thankful for, and I'd like to insist upon our general thankfulness. Very grateful, and all that.

We have, in fact, sort of missed Thanksgiving for the past decade or so. Because of the way our schedule works, we are normally in the U.S. at the time of Canadian Thanksgiving and in Canada at the time of U.S. Thanksgiving, so it has been easy enough just to pass on both and to eat grilled cheese sandwiches and vegetable soup on those occasions, and be thankful enough for them and for one another. Our children all live far away from us and from one another so for the most part, they do a traditional thanksgiving in an untraditional manner: none of this ‘home for the holidays.’ Maybe all for the best considering the way in which these occasions are alleged to be a source of great stress.

However, however, last month, for unknown reasons, Ed said, ‘Why don’t we have a regular Thanksgiving dinner this year, even though we’re in B.C. And invite the neighbors.’ Presumably he mentioned this to me before noon and I said, ‘Sure, sure, whatever you say, dear.’ Later in the day, I might have at least thought about it. But there we were. He invited the neighbors, they accepted, and I put this anticipated event on the schedule and in the back of my mind.

However, however, it is now in the front of my mind. The very front. Yesterday, I betook myself to the grocery store to acquire a turkey and assorted Thanksgiving Stuff. I assumed there would be a turkey because there are a lot of Americans up here and the grocery is doubtless willing to accommodate their needs. However, after walking back and forth along the meat counter about eight times, I finally located the one and only Thanksgiving Turkey: about 14 pounds and $45.00. Even Canadian, that’s a lot to pay for a turkey I don’t particularly long for. And I doubt if the neighbors were longing either, since they’d had their own turkey just a month ago. I contemplated the turkey; I tried to admire the turkey; I lifted the turkey in my two hands to see if it felt like a $45 purchase. It really didn’t. So I put it back and thought, ‘Lasagna?’

No, you can’t have lasagna for Thanksgiving dinner; we have had it, as well as chile, for Christmas, but not for Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving, it is a turkey, alas. Or maybe a …chicken? A nice, big, roasting chicken that I can pretend is a small turkey, if only to myself? An organic-y chicken (not really, because the closest this market comes to organic chickens are those referred to as ‘antibiotic-free specialty chickens’, whatever specialty may mean). There were a bunch of those. I took the biggest one, a little over five pounds, and only $16. (My younger daughter reports that their entire turkey cost only $16.)

So there we are. There will be only a small amount of stuffing, of course, but there will be no mashed potatoes because the chicken does not give good enough gravy (in my view) to justify mashed potatoes. I am asking Ed to roast a big pan of root vegetables, including russets and sweet potatoes, parsnips, rhutabaga, carrots, and onions, and today I made a large quantity of pickled beets for salad. They had no fresh cranberries at the grocery, either, but I still had a bag of them in the freezer from last Christmas, and they will do. A friend has recently given me a bunch of leeks, so we’ll start it all off with vichysoisse, and we’ll end it with apple pie and whipped cream. I think Squanto would be happy to attend. And I think that next year, I’ll go with something more traditional: grilled cheese sandwiches and vegetable soup, and very thankful for both.