This is not my favorite time of the year. This bleak stretch starts in mid-October with my mother's birthday, segues into November and the Thanksgiving season which also happens to be the anniversary of her final illness and death and the anniversary of a failed marriage and the season dead ends in New Year's Day, the anniversary of my father's death fourteen months after my mother died.
When Martin and I first started dating, we spent our first Thanksgiving in the Bahamas. It was wonderful. Although it's not the sunniest time of the year there, it's still very warm, there was endless food and drink, the resort had a lovely outdoor heated pool with a whirlpool and there was not a turkey in sight.
I've also distracted myself in the past by elaborate meal planning and execution and post-Thanksgiving shopping.
This year, my father-in-law Peter insisted on making Thanksgiving dinner. While this is a lovely gesture, Peter is not much of a cook. He enjoys watching cooking shows, reading cooking magazines and books and uses those experiences to pick out things for me to cook. Rarely does he venture into the actual physical act of preparing food more complicated than a toasted bagel.
I offered to help plan the menu. Denied. I offered to make a side dish or two. Denied. I pleaded to be allowed to at least provide the dessert, thus assuring that Martin and I wouldn't starve to death. He grudgingly acquiesced to that and we decided on creme brulee, a family favorite.
Early this week, he decided creme brulee was a horrible option and picked out a recipe from one of my old Food & Wine magazines: Mexican Chocolate and Dulce de Leche Crepe Torte. It looked wonderful and sinful and the active time was an hour and thirty minutes and it required at least two ingredients I was fairly certain I would not be able to find easily if at all in Brighton, Michigan.
After thinking about it for a day, I decided to make bread pudding, using a recipe I found here. It's quite simply, wonderful.
Peter's dinner turned out just fine. He made turkey breast, pork loin, mashed potatoes and gravy, steamed carrots, stuffing and cheese bread.
I made it through Thanksgiving dinner. Tonight is the Festival of Lights parade and I'll be seeing some friends I don't get to see all that often, so I'm excited about that. Hopefully pictures to follow.
And I've burned through another Thanksgiving Day.
I think that, eventually, you will be able to accept the holidays for their own sake, and package up your memories like old love letters.
Mia will be starting to remember things, now--I remember Christmas when I was three. Time to put a brave face on it so that she will have wonderful memories...
Posted by: ronni | November 24, 2007 at 12:42 PM