Thanksgiving -- Wood Style

 ... celery, then black, yellow, white and orange carrots ...

At Moiya’s house, Thanksgiving Day Dinner #1 was served to the Dye family of Silver Creek.

Thanksgiving Day Dinner #2 came the next day for us at her house: turkey, potatoes, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and a bean casserole. Also served w ere three kinds of carrots – black, white and orange, all grown in her garden. The cooked carrots appeared in a casserole. The raw carrots were served beside the dilled sour cream dip. Bonnie had to ask: did you make your sour cream with homogenized milk, 18% butterfat cream or 36% butterfat cream. She knows that Moiya and Glen both make yogurt and are on the search for the perfect yogurt method. Who wouldn’t want to know the exact recipe and hope that one might replicated it, if any of us should be so lucky as to have it appear on the Family Food Blog.

 ... Moiya makes rolls from Billie Bate's Recipe ...

Between dinner and dessert we went around the table, each of us adding to the list of things to be thankful for. We were allowed only one item each. Moiya started -- thanksgiving that a new baby has come safely into the world: Pepper Wyora Wood, born in Lethbridge. David Wood added he was thankful for Moiya. Being married to her is a lot of fun he said and that fun comes at the most unexpected times. David Camps was thankful for having been taught a new song, “there was a man who had three sons / there was a man who had three sons/...” etc. He like the verse where they all went down to Amsterdam. He liked the song on reflection. He was surprised on its first iternation. Everyone at the table sang until they got to the part of Amster/Amster/dam/dam/dam. Only David sang the last part – the dam/dam/dam. The rest of us looked appropriately shocked. The song turned out to be one of the highlights of his day.

Bonnie to David:
"You are not allowed a bun
until your whole dinner is finished."

David to Bonnie:
Ahhhh, mom!"

Bonnie was thankful for Uncle David who had put air in the tires of her car on Thursday when one tires was flat just as she was leaving for work. He also got thanks for helping out with David’s bike, getting the blue one cut down into a strider bike and demonstrating for David where the gears are on the orange one --- six wonderful gears. I was thankful for the sound of the stream outside as I had been raking the dirt this morning. I have been raking for a number of mornings at the place where the lawn needs to be re-seed because of the break in my water pipes. The sound of the water still rushing over the rocks makes the raking so pleasant.

After dinner, four of us went to took a nap. David Wood watched TV for 10 minutes. He knew had gone to sleep because he couldn’t remember how the programme turned out when he woke up. I laid my head against the back of the chair after finishing my lemon meringue pie. I knew I had gone to sleep because Moiya woke me up and told me to go lay down on the blue couch in the living room. I knew Bonnie went to sleep because when I opened my eyes she was covered with a woollen afghan and saying in half-slurred speech, “David, I am too tired to drive you into town for electronics time at your Dad’s. I also know you have had 5 hours of it at Aunt Moiya’s. Isn’t that enough?”

... home made sour cream turned into a dip ...
... note the black carrot as vehicle for dip ...

The “isn’t that enough” part of her sentence let me know her mid was perfectly lucid. Her body wasn’t fully functioning at the same speed. Bonnie doesn’t know what every other person David’s age knows. Five hours of electronics in the day is not enough. That is one point where I side with David – excess is good when it comes to electronics. I am on Bonnie’s side when it comes to should she drive him into town for one half hour more of electronic time.  I say no, only because it is dangerous for a woman who has consumed a delicious holiday dinner to wake up in the afterglow of an ensuing nap and then drive a car.

Better to wake up slowly and begin to psychologically prepare for that long thirty-day stretch between this long weekend and the next one occurring on Remembrance Day.

Arta