Stuffin’ the Pie Hole

My sister has been our regular hostess for Thanksgiving dinner for many years and my son, Max, looks forward to our large family get togethers.  I don’t know if our group has ever been as big as 30, but I’m pretty sure we’re always more than 20.  As most people do, we eat a lot, watch football, catch-up with the ones we don’t see so often, and play a game or two.

Max started a new job this year and was pretty excited to learn that he would not be working on Thanksgiving.  When you’re in food service it often comes with the territory, but he drew the lucky straw and for the first time in recent memory he won’t be working on turkey Thursday. 

As it turns out, he’ll be missing out on our big group gathering for one more year.  We all will.  Collectively, we’ve decided to stick with smaller family groups.  For us, that means it will be just the three of us; MOH, Max, and me.  It’s a good thing we like each other’s company – for the most part.  It will be weird, but we’re sticking with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, only smaller:  turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, and of course pumpkin pie.

I was worried about small turkeys going fast, but I wasn’t ready to do my shopping yet.  MOH was lucky enough to find a small-ish one (12 pounds) while he was doing his mom’s weekly shopping.  How many people will a twelve pound turkey feed?  Not sure, but I’m guessing we’ll have some leftovers.

Our larger family is planning a Zoom call on Thanksgiving Day.  We’ll eat a piece of pie together and maybe play a round of Scattergories.  This planning reminded me that although we usually have a pumpkin pie here at home, Max looks forward to the chocolate pie that my sister makes.  Also, I had been planning to make a carrot cake from scratch as a special dessert for MOH.  Well, no matter.  We’re having a small dinner, so I’ll put in a little extra effort and we’ll have three different desserts.  It’s a special day, why not?

This week when I stopped at Meijer to pick up the carrots for the cake and the bread for the dressing, I ran into a bit of a snag.  When I was in the bread aisle, I saw the brown and serve dinner rolls that MOH likes and we usually only have at Thanksgiving or Easter.  I threw them in the cart.  Then as I wheeled down the main aisle, I saw Bruce’s yams on the end cap.  Ugh!  I forgot about the sweet potatoes.  Whether someone makes sweet potatoes with mini marshmallows or Ruth’s Chris sweet potato casserole, sweet potatoes are an important part of our family Thanksgiving dinner.  I put a couple cans in my cart.  The next end cap held French’s fried onions.  Oh Good Lord!  I forgot about green bean casserole.  But I steeled my resolve and passed them by.  After all, we’re having a small dinner this year.

• 

• 

Later, while I was putting away groceries, I saw a bag of lima beans in the freezer.  We typically host MOH’s family for a big family meal on the weekend before or after Thanksgiving.  I always make lima beans even though my father-in-law and I are the only ones that ever eat them.  This is our first year without him – clearly I need to honor our tradition.  Glad to see I already have some on hand.

So to sum it up, I’ll be hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for three.  We’ll be having turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, lima beans, dressing, brown n serve dinner rolls, pumpkin pie, chocolate pie and carrot cake.  You know, just keeping it small and simple.

I am thankful for my family and thankful for our memories.  We are truly blessed.