Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Thanksgiving 2.0

Well, folks...Thanksgiving 2018 certainly broke new ground for Team WestEnders. To begin with, we had to extract one of our members from his academic home-away-from-home, and bring him back into the fold for the long weekend of family fun. To do this, Husband first spent a few days with his parents in another part of SC, then shuttled over to the university when Derek finished his last class on Tuesday evening (which he had to attend, since they were taking a test--and can I just say: fie on you, mean professor!). The two of them then made the trek back to our Carolina, arriving a little before 11 p.m.

Then, Wednesday was a lovely day of rest; obviously neither of the boys had school, Husband had already taken time off from work for Operation Derek Retrieval...and since no one ELSE had to toil away, I decided I certainly wasn't going into the office, either. (So there!) It was also a wise idea to get some early relaxation in, because we were all rising and shining (or you know, whatever) at 7-ish on Turkey Day to run a festive family 5K...yaaayyyy! (Yes, Derek was roped into this...and while he seemed to accept his fate gracefully at the time, on the actual morning of the race, he retaliated for the forced crack-of-dawn exercise by being as snarky as humanly possible until the workout portion of the day concluded. Siiighhh...)

As for the event itself, it was a frigid start, y'all--but at least there was sun, and no noticeable breeze. As usual, Derek and Husband trotted along together. Riley had actually asked me to sign him up for the 8K option, so he was on his own. All I requested in return was that he please, for the love of Pete, finish his 5 miles AFTER I was done with my 3. (Is that unreasonable? I didn't think so...) As it turned out, he complied...barely...by cruising across the line...oh, about a minute past me. Fifth overall finisher, first in his age group, blah blah blah, the yoozh...and a 6:12 pace. (I know, right? Good. Grief.) The rest of us did just fine as well, with the D/H combo clocking in at 26:54, and me bringing up the rear (of our gang, at least) at 28:30.

Not too shabby for a holiday kickoff...and of course the most important thing is that we earned All. The. Food. And let's not forget the crucial lounging about and football/parade viewing! (I'll give you ONE guess as to who was doing each of those...) But speaking of the feast, we had a virtual epiphany at some point when we realized that we had somehow gotten to this moment in our lives...without ever having concocted Thanksgiving dinner. What the WHAT? You see, it was always my mom's thing, and we went to her house when we lived in Maryland. Then when we moved closer to the other set of grandparents, the 3 dudes started traveling down there for the November celebration (leaving me with my Weekend O' Quiet each year).


With Derek away at college, however, there was no question that he had to come back to Casa WestEnders during the break...thus, the great CookingPalooza of 2018 commenced. Because naturally, it couldn't be as simple as poultry/stuffing/potatoes. Well, actually the turkey was normal, and the potatoes came straight from a box...because that's just how we do. But the stuffing had to originate from a gluten-free mix (which I found at Whole Foods, fortunately)...and we had to have both carnivore- and vegetarian-friendly gravy...and cranberry sauce with and without whole pieces of fruit...and we added roasted Brussels sprouts for the "green component"...and a vegan, gluten-free pumpkin pie that I found directions for online a couple of years ago. So yeah...lots of moving parts!

Husband--for obvious reasons--took care of the meat course, plus the spuds. I made the dessert a day ahead, and planned to handle the stuffing and veggies, using a recipe I'd pulled from a magazine a long time ago, but hadn't yet sprung on the fam. It called for an ingredient we never, ever eat: dried figs. I admit I was a little hesitant about this, knowing that all of my guys have a strong bias against preserved fruit of any kind....yet I decided to go for it anyway. And I recall being super-excited (and relieved) when I found a package of them at one of the local grocery stores, after searching in vain for a couple of days.

So when it came time to actually assemble the dish, I confidently strolled over to the pantry where I remembered storing the figs...and was both confused and mildly panicked when I failed to locate them. Naturally, I began searching--first I checked the other shelves. Then when that turned up nada, I retraced my steps back to the car, where I looked under the seats in case they'd fallen out, in my reusable shopping bags where they could have gotten stuck...basically, anywhere I could think of that might be harboring runaway figs.

What I neglected to consider was that my BELOVED CHILDREN had in fact ABSCONDED with the offending tidbits, in hopes of preventing me from tossing them in with the Brussels. What gave it away? Perhaps it was the obnoxious snickering coming from the couches in the next room, where they were all hanging out in front of the TV. Or the one arm reaching above the back of the sofa, waving a familiar red bag in the air, accompanied by the merry voice calling, "Looking for these?"

I could have killed them. Okaaaay, it was...somewhat amusing. But I still yelled at all of them--and beat them (gently) with the bag--before conceding any kind of humorous reaction. (Bless their little pea-pickin' hearts...) I did get my sweet revenge, though, and also the last laugh, because you know what? You couldn't even taste those suckers in with the toasted walnuts and roasted B-sprouts. As a matter of fact, after the meal, Derek commented, "I have to admit, I didn't mind the figs. They added a kind of tanginess to the dish." Ha! I WIN! (And clearly, Food Network has rubbed off on him a wee bit, yeah?)

Anyway, I believe Husband summed it up best when he remarked, glancing around the kitchen at all the complicated yumminess, "Huh...for a bunch of amateurs, we did a bang-up job!" After that, over the next two days there was ample time for much brother bonding, Derek catching up with his High School buddies, decorating the house for the next big occasion, taking the annual photo for the holiday card (which provided quite the episode of entertaining, exasperating mayhem--but that's a whole other post, friends), and just enjoying the heck out of having everyone in the same house again for a while.

Alas, all too soon it was time to take the coed back to his alternate home. So he packed up his duffel bag...inexplicably forgetting half of his shorts, which he'd stashed in his dresser drawer for some reason after washing them, rather than returning them sensibly to his luggage. He proceeded to text me about it after I'd dropped him off and gotten halfway back to Chapel Hill. I think this would have to be classified as a College Student Fail. (And yes, I took pity on him and mailed them back, given the fact that he complained about the shortage of washing machines in his building, and the difficulty in snagging an available one. And he's a warm-blooded human who will continue to wear shorts until at least Christmas in SC. Oh, and also because that's just the kind of awesome...enabling...mother I am. Don't judge...)

Clothing fiasco notwithstanding, I greatly appreciated the four hours of car togetherness, since it gave us uninterrupted chat time before he's gone again for a few more weeks. The solo return trip, however...I could happily have lived without. It still feels really weird to drive my kid 200 miles away and leave him; I know I've only done it twice now, so I sincerely hope it gets easier each time. Come to think of it, I suppose it already has--I only needed a bag of cheesy popcorn, a vat of Diet Pepsi, and a satellite radio station playing nonstop seasonal tunes...rather than a whole box of tissues. Progress!

And now, let the countdown commence, to when the WestEnders squad will be reunited and back at it again...at the end of Semester 1...the beginning of Winter Break...and the whole Yuletide scene. Yippeee!

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