This is a long past due post that Holly has told me I must write before I am allowed to write anything more on this blog.
Most of you who know me understand that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. There are several reasons for this and I could probably write a long treatise on the subject, but to spare you from my ramblings I will make it short.
It is a holiday that we seem to all be able to relate to. Without being blind to the imperfections in our lives and the troubles around the world, most of us can look around us and see the good we do have; family, friends and those good things that we see happening. You don’t need to be an adherent to a specific religion, political party or be a super patriot. You just need to be able to take time once a year to recognize the good you do have and not dwell on the negative for at least one day.
For around 30 years, Holly and I hosted a Thanksgiving Day dinner at our house on 34th and Denny in Seattle. (As a matter of fact, since I left to go to graduate school in Detroit in 1972, with only a few exceptions, I have hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at my house.) Those dinners have included children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews, parents, grandparents, friends and anyone else that needed a place at a table on this holiday. During those last 30 years we had anywhere between 23-32 people to celebrate with us and always had a wonderful time of feasting and sharing with everyone involved. To be quite honest, losing this tradition was one of my personal reservations about our move to Italy. But life moves on and new traditions always evolve.
Both years we have been here in Italy, our daughter, Jamie, our son, Zach, and his partner, Shannon, have traveled all of the way to Lecce, Italy to share this special holiday with us. This year Jamie brought three of her friends, Lizzie, Molly and Kim, and Zach brought his friend Ipo along for the occasion. Adding our Italian friends, we had a total of 23 people sharing our dinner and listening to my ever-present Thanksgiving toast (this year in both English and broken Italian).
The Cast from the U.S.
In the United States, it was always hard for me to find a 30 pound turkey for our dinner. In Italy the smallest I could find was around 33 pounds. Our local butcher, Ermano, always likes to clown around and picking up the whole turkey (they sell the pieces, but rarely a whole bird) was no exception. The turkeys here are very juicy and if you are not careful at the end of the roasting your pan can be very full of that juice. Imagine (or look at the photo below) my surprise when all of that hot juice came spilling out of the pan as I took the bird out of the oven. Thankfully there were no injuries, just a mess to be cleaned up as I was trying carve a turkey for 23 guests.
The Turkey
We had a great dinner and our Italian friends always seen to enjoy the traditions as much as we do. They all bring food and so the dinner is a delightful blend of traditional American and Italian food. It was an absolute joyous evening of eating, drinking and conversing.
The Dinner
Since our American guests were only going to be in Italy for a few short days, it was decided that we needed to take a trip the day after our celebration and Matera was chosen as the place to go. Since we held our dinner on Friday evening to accommodate our Italian guests (dinner starting around 8:30) we didn’t finish the cleanup until around 3 am. At 9 am the next morning, we got everyone out of bed to trek off to Matera in a rented van. Along with our American guests, Gianfranco and Paula also joined the excursion. Although I had originally disagreed with the prudence of trying for an outing the day after our dinner (there was some sleeping on the 2 hour drive back) Matera worked its magic, and everyone was totally enchanted.
The Day After Trip to Matera
Before we leave Portugal next week, I will be posting several long overdue stories and hopefully will have time to write-up our time in Lisbon and Porto.
Jim, with every photograph you look more and more Italiano.
I will take that as a compliment.
was curious if the oven was big enough
Who is this really?
That turkey! Glad there were no injuries. I’m reminded of my mother’s huge bird to feed our family of eight plus grandparents and guests. Since living in Australia (1981) I’ve never attempted a turkey. Now I’m feeling inspired. This might be the year.
You demonstrate that home is not a place, but a power, and you take it with you wherever you go! Love you!
Thank you Kim. Love you, too.