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Here's the story of this year's Rhode Island Thanksgiving...
As we have been doing for several years, on Wednesday night we had invited
those who made the trip a day early to come over to our house for food,
drink, and visiting...
Uh, no, it isn't always gender-segregated as it would appear to be from
these two pictures... it's just the way things happened to be when I snapped
these pictures (besides which, both pictures were taken in the same room).
Okay, I'm not sure what the topic of conversation was at the table, but
the guys were discussing roofing materials (yeah, shop talk).
I blew off the Newport Pie Run -- well, we were all no-shows for the race,
but Jill and I had actually registered (i.e., paid the registration fee).
Thanksgiving morning temperatures were right around the freezing mark --
it was raining (hard) at our house but snow was as close as just two miles
away and the thought of slogging through rain and wind for five slow and
weary miles and flirting with hypothermia made us all decide to forego
the race this year.... So, here's to next year!
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This is the fourth year that we have rented the parish hall at Nancy's
church. It is a wonderful way to have so many people gathered for dinner.
The church kitchen has two ovens so we can have two large turkeys cooking
at the same time. (There is also a commercial-grade dish-washer.. very
important at clean-up time.)
(On the left -- three generations -- Jill and Nancy and Nancy's mother.) |
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| Pre-prandial visiting and munching on veggies & dip and such while
waiting for the main event.... |
It's always amazing how many people can fit into a big kitchen like this
without bumping into each other... |
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Bob always handles the carving of both turkeys...
Before we begin, Mike reads from an e-mail sent by Matt who is serving in Iraq. And then Sue reads (from the Book of Common Prayer)
a prayer for those in the armed forces overseas. |
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We got smart this year (actually, it was Nancy's idea) and moved the serving
tables away from the wall so that we could pass along either side, thus
greatly speeding the process of loading our plates with delicious food.
This year we cleaned up after eating dinner and drove over to my mother-in-law's
house for coffee and dessert. One sister and one sister-in-law were having
significant decade birthdays (40 and 50) and we had a joint surprise birthday
party for both of them. Cathy and Diane both appeared to actually be surprised
and they both bore up with good cheer through a series of gag birthday
gifts. |
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| Just desserts |
Tea and coffee and conversation... |
See the array of desserts in the picture above. Yes, six pies, a cake,
a plate of chocolate brownies, a plate of cookies, and two plates of cupcakes.
Oh... and that's not counting the birthday cake.
In the picture on the right... Cathy, Karen, Clara, and Nancy.
Oh, and yesterday I used the turkey bones and some leftover turkey meat,
etc. to make a stock which I then used to make a turkey stew (add potatoes
& onions & celery & various vegetables and turkey meat, etc.)
which we brought over to Nancy's mom's house for dinner with various siblings
and spouses and children (come to think of it, actually just one teenage
child). |
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And that was this year's Thanksgiving in Rhode Island.
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| jimsjournal
-- on the Web since September 26, 1996! |
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