Don't Make Me Release The Flying Monkeys

Well! It looks like I haven't posted here since June! I do still read about once a week, but I wanted to hop on to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Tonight is cooking and baking night, in preparation for tomorrow and our guests. Hard to believe, but this will be the 9th year for beowabbit and me hosting Thanksgiving together, and 10 years exactly since the first day we met at surrealestate's Thanksgiving.

Three pies are currently in the oven (pumpkin, spicy apple and a cherry-apple crumble). Wabbit's mom silverlibre is here from Illinois, and is making Waldorf salad, among many other treats. Wabbit is on potato duty as well as brussels sprouts. Everything but the turkey will be done before we go to bed tonight, and we won't be too exhausted to have fun with our guests.

What else is new? I was recently in the PMRP Halloween show, and have just been cast in the upcoming PMRP gender-swapped Star Trek. I'm still loving my work at the DOE. More in love with Wabbit with every day. Oh those pies are smelling so good!

I don't know who's still here, but wishing you and yours a delightful Thanksgiving!

I'm still bubbly over how sailingly well the Thanksgiving potluck went. This was the first event that beowabbit and I have hosted together, and on a special day for us -- the exact 1-year anniversary of the first time we were introduced to each other (by pheromone). And here we are a year later, well fed with wonderful friends, a fridge full of leftovers, and memories of a very happy holiday.

Perhaps only heliopsis and my mother knew of my severe turkey-roasting anxiety -- it was my first. But with their help and advice, I was able to do a little dance of joy when the "done" button popped up on the beautiful, golden-brown bird, all 22-pounds of it. It came out juicy and delicious, with enough drippings for heliopsis to make gravy, which beowabbit and I agreed was the Very Best gravy either of us had ever tasted. mangosteen brought over a selection of very fine scotch and tequilla (for sipping, not mixing!) that was liberally enjoyed. kalliejenn2 supplied punch and pie. The Wabbit made his famous garlicky sweet potatoes, while I covered mashed potatoes and stuffing. Pies flew in from all directions (6 in all, I think). docorion sage-n-onioned us, and I got to meet mattlistener and mud_puppy for the first time. It was a cuddly squeeze in the livingroom with plates-on-laps. But as mangosteen observed, "This is what a family Thanksgiving really is." Much snuggling, much laughter and leisurely fun.

I am, without mentioning it often, painfully and cringingly shy about hosting or letting people see my house. Look up "humble abode" in the dictionary, and you'll see this crow's nest that vanguardcdk and I share. The kitchen is is similar to a ship's galley, with all the pots and pans hanging hodge-podge from the walls, and the floor unlevel. The apartment is appointed with yard sales goodies and prize trash picks, and the cats have the run of the house. Peculiar bric-a-brac catches the cautiously curious eye here and there. The house has a vague Weasley flavor to it -- one might expect the dishes to leap up and do themselves, albeit a slapshod job. It isn't a planned decorating scheme; it's just what we have. But seeing it filled with friends and merrymaking let me know that, in spite of my doubts, it is indeed a place where merry can be made.

I have such a lot to be thankful for, and felt so much of that gratitude on this lovely holiday. After the last guests trickled out, beowabbit and I went a bit wild and used the kitchen in a manner for which it was not designed. ;-) And why not? A feast goes beyond food, when one is blessed with the twin treasures of love and an oaisis of light-hearted time.

A happy holiday weekend to all, and a wonderful year ahead.