(An update to my annual Thanksgiving post)
I love Thanksgiving, which I think is the most underrated holiday in the year. It got eaten by Christmas about twenty years ago, so people are already stressed about what’s going to go under the tree when they haven’t even had their annual allotment of pumpkin pie yet.
I also love November, which I think is the most underrated month in the year. Like Thanksgiving, it’s not flashy, but it’s good and solid and reliable. Winter is coming in, at least around these parts, but it’s not quite here yet, and November is our chance get ready. We’ll have a cold snap and some flurries, and everyone will load up on firewood and canned soup, and then it’ll warm up into the 60s, and everyone smiles because that’s right, winter isn’t quite here yet.
November is always one of my happy months. It makes me feel cozy, but I also don’t have to shovel six feet of snow to get to the street. I love the light in November, mellow, gentle, like it had a good glass of wine before showing up to work.
That’s what Thanksgiving is to me, mellow and gentle. Possibly the best holiday of the year. I get up late because I don’t have any turkeys to put in the oven. A long time ago, Jess and I established our holiday rituals, and there’s nary a turkey or a mashed potato to be seen in my kitchen. We go out for Chinese.
That’s probably my favorite holiday memory of all time, being greeted by Lucy and Gene at the restaurant, and talking about how another year is ending, and eating cashew tofu and vegetable fried rice, and feeling lucky even before we get to the fortune cookies.
This year Lucy and Gene closed their restaurant to take a well-deserved retirement, but they had the foresight to sell the building to another family who have re-opened it as a Chinese restaurant. Jess and I will be there, as usual, on Thursday evening, and maybe we will make a few new friends.
Here’s hoping your Thanksgiving is full of all the egg rolls you could want.
A good comment. I also love to write and like the time to be with my family at Thanksgiving. May you do well. I read part of your dojo book of wisdom for writers.
I hope that your family is doing well. I read of the struggle with your family in another one of your posts a year or so ago.
I think we're missing something up here north of you, not celebrating Thanksgiving in the same fashion. We have one of our own, of course, but it rarely takes the same place of importance, and it's too far from Christmas.
Enjoy your daughter's company and your tofu and your November light – Happy Thanskgiving.
I like the concept of Chinese on turkey day. Enjoy. I'm also an autumn lover. Got married in November, Listopad, as we say in Polish, "falling leaves."