Thanksgiving 2007

Hard to believe it's our fourth Thanksgiving with Ulysses, and our third time having it at home as a family of three.

This year we were joined by our friend Michelle who lives in Altadena, California, one of the three dear, lasting friendships I was lucky enough to form while I lived out that way. She was at her mother's place, where she's living now, sort of in between situations, and she visited us via Skype! That is, we had a video window open on the MacBook, so she could see and hear us and we could see and hear her.

To make it even more strangely appropriate, she was fasting today. I didn't ask why, but I figure it has something to do with her recently becoming a Buddhist. She had been planning to volunteer at a charity Thanksgiving dinner today, and had even gone earlier in the day and been sent home until later, but her transportation fell through at the last minute. Our gain -- we kept connected right through our Thanksgiving meal and beyond. Considering that she wasn't planning to eat a bite anyway, it was just as well that all we could do was hold all the yummy stuff in front of the iSight camera for her to ogle.

Here's the menu:

• Roast turkey (no stuffing -- trying to cut a few carbs)
  
• Gravy
• Cranberry sauce
• Molasses-apricot candied sweet potatoes
• Sourdough biscuits
• Green beans
• Chilean Merlot

I must say, it was the most delicious Thanksgiving meal I can ever remember eating. We must be getting really good at cooking!

I baked a pumpkin pie, too, using canned pumpkin and the exact recipe from the Libby's label. That's a novelty for me -- usually I buy a pie pumpkin from the farmers' market and take it from there! But it didn't come out of the oven until around 7:30. Those things aren't good until they've cooled completely, which takes at least a few hours. So we'll have that tomorrow. I'm going in for a regular day of work -- I took Wednesday off instead of Friday to help smooth out the holiday drop in personnel -- so that means I'll be waiting until dinnertime to sample the pie!