By Georgia Osten
As family was gathering for our Thanksgiving feast, I began to think back to how many Thanksgivings have I been doing this? I’m sure it’s only been since I was a parent with a home of my own. All other times, it must have been my Mom, Dad and Granny. I wonder how they must have enjoyed each other’s company and who did what? Did Mom have her own specialty dishes, did my Dad make the gravy, did Granny prepare mashed potatoes and dressing?
I’ll never forget the biggest Thanksgiving we ever had at the beach. I can’t even tell you how many people showed up. We blocked in the downstairs with plastic to keep the cold out, but people were all over the house, inside and out. We assigned different people certain dishes to bring, thinking with all this help, we’ll have plenty of room to cook our stuff in the oven and on the stove top. WRONG … everyone brought their particular dish, but they brought it to be prepared at our house. Holy Cow!
It’s okay, everything turned out fine, just a little off schedule due to cooking times.
This year, we wanted to eat early, so we had the turkey and ham ready to go into the oven just as soon as my husband woke up. He wakes at 5am, no problem, the turkey went in as scheduled and ham followed a few hours later. When the oven was clear, all other (already prepared) items went in to heat up. What a treat, all the family but the five in N.Carolina – we’ll see them at Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, we got the tree out the day after Thanksgiving. It’s decorated to the hilt, it’s been a few years since I’ve seen it. We had to order some replacement bulbs, but it’s still lovely after nearly 10 years.
I began wondering if I’d made a mistake putting the tree up so soon. You see, we have The Littles coming to stay with us next weekend. The Littles are the 19 month old twins and their older 4 year old brother. Oh my! Every time I look at the tree, it dawns on me that I must have consciously placed most of the ornaments higher up, there’s quite a lot of bare space near the bottom. I’m trying to imagine how we could build a fence all around the tree, we have a few days to consider.
Hope your Thanksgiving was grand, enjoy those leftovers while you can. Personally, I couldn’t wait ’til the next day to have a turkey sandwich!
GO’s Sand Bucket is only one beach bum’s journal of life at the beach, probably something each of you can relate to. Please feel free to email me with your thoughts, visions and/or feelings of just exactly what the beach means to you. Email: [email protected]
[11-26-2018]
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