Happy Thanksgiving, eh?

This year my brother and sister in law and their children are coming from Montreal, as are my dear friend NatureDoc and her husband and daughter. Except for NatureDoc's hubby, we're all Canadian!

Canadians, as a rule, do not make as big a hooha about Thanksgiving. Yeah, we get turkey and do whole food orgy (earlier in the fall), but it's not the fervent, dare I say, mania that it is here. And you know what? Since moving here. I have become a dedicated convert to the whole meshegaas (me‧shu‧gaas  /ˌmɪʃəˈgɑs/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[mish-uh-gahs] -noun Slang: foolishness; insanity; senselessness. Origin: Yiddish) that is Thanksgiving. I think it's required, possibly in the fine print of American citizenship.

When I first moved to this country, ignorant Canadian yahoo that I was, I was initiated into the American Thanksgiving continuum by dear friends, who taught me well. For instance I learned decorations for Turkey Day will go up right after Halloween, extending the decorative shelf-life of the pumpkin by several weeks. I learned that children in elementary schools all over the country will do artistic murder unto vast quantities of red, yellow and brown construction paper in order to create traced-hand turkeys and pilgrims and Indian chiefs. I also learnd that the unsavory origins of the union of white man and noble Indian isn't mentioned, but glossed over with PIE. I came, I saw, I conquered, let's eat!!

Nevertheless, I know that at the very least I must have family (with the most points going to the person traveling the farthest) and dear friends that I dig hanging out with and relish cooking FOR. I learned I must have a great big (organic) turkey and enough side dishes to stupefy my assembled small horde. So, there will be lots of wine, carbonated apple cider for the kids, absolutely no football, and soft places to recline from the turkey-induced stupor.

So on to my planned menu: I am making a roasted carrot/onion/potato thing that will be comprised of yellow, red and purple carrots from my (organic) garden, pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie, both also made from the harvest from my very own organic dirtpatch. Finally, I am making a triple batch of my mother's fabulous rice and raisin stuffing. I didn't grow the rice, although it occurs to me that with the inordinate amount of rain we had this past summer, I could have!!

One thing I won’t be snarky about is the message of thanks my family and I all feel toward the universe. We are unbelievably blessed and that, despite the huge hooha, is the bottom line.

Have a wonderful thanksgiving!!