The death and devouring of Mr. Torrance Lewis Turkeyleg, Esq.

The players:

That’s right folks, we named the bird, soaked him in a brine, roasted him, boiled his neck and other various innards and danced around his delicious smelling body the whole time.  No wait.  I mean, we said Thank You, thank you Torrance Lewis Turkeyleg, Esq for your humble life and delicious death.  You were good, we loved you well.

With my parents in Australia, and the Walton family house sitting for them in their absence, it was a lovely Thanksgiving built for three.  We started early, brining our young tom turkey on Wednesday and making the cranberry sauce the night before.  On Thanksgiving morning, we went for a hike and came home in time to put Asher in the oven and the turkey down for a nap.  (Just kidding Mom!)  While Asher slept, Drew and I made a rosemary pumpkin au gratin, green beans with caramelized shallots and lemon, sausage stuffing, and of course the bird and the gravy!  And also some popcorn because I was hungry, and this cook needed a little more than champagne to keep her going.

I had fun using my mom and grandmother’s things (or possibly my great grandmother’s? I’ll have to get set straight on which china pattern belonged to which lady) to set the table, and took a lot of pleasure in making it festive despite the small crowd.
(clearly I’m not encumbered with the need to “iron” and “starch” for the holidays…I’m pretty sure that sound you’re hearing is Martha tsk tsking from somewhere in Connecticut.)

For Asher’s part, he started out like this:

Which quickly turned into this:

Which then looked like this:

And it all ended here:

Drew and I both gave thanks for the abundance of our lives, and of course for the little turkey smearing cranberry sauce all over himself next to us at the table.  Looking into the grinning face of our son at any meal is enough to send us into fits of gratitude, but on this day, enjoying a quiet but celebratory meal as a family, listening to The Band in the background and enjoying the simple meal that we prepared together, it bordered on overwhelming.  We’re so thankful for this life, for the joy, for the shelter, and even for the occasional storm.  So Grateful.

We finished the meal (that’s right, the bath happened mid-meal) smiling as Asher crawled around entertaining himself while we heaped our plates again.  This is the first Thanksgiving that I’ve ever been to where someone ended up naked at the table, but after seeing how much more fun Mr nudie booty was having, we might make a family proclamation.  Kidding!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to you and yours!