The Fifth Thanksgiving, SLD

We just finished six days of celebrating our fifth Thanksgiving since Leigh died (SLD), to borrow a phrase from Holley’s calendar. And with apologies to Julie, Riley, and Regan, who could not be here due to other commitments, it was probably our best holiday to date without Leigh’s energy and laughter.
This post may not be as interesting to followers of my blog who are outside the family, but it speaks so much to what our family is all about that I felt I should share it. And it represents what Leigh loved more than anything, fun family gatherings.

We actually began our holiday on Friday night with the arrival of Graig, Debbie, Findley, and Jayden, and Debbie’s parents, Maciek and Kay, all coming from California. They, along with Louise, Coen (Holley’s son), and me, enjoyed the football game on Saturday, a first for most of these Californians. Later that evening, Holley and her other son, Cade, joined us from Roswell, GA; and then on Sunday, Chris and Arleen;  Jake, Jordan, and Lynleigh; and Haleigh, and Rob arrived from Charlotte.

We were dead set on eating at 2 PM sharp. I think most of us were confident we would make that schedule as we would not be waiting on Leigh to fix her last minute mac ‘n cheese. It only took six last-minute trips to the grocery store to get all the ingredients and special tools (including a high-tech digital meat thermometer that Graig insisted on). It quickly became evident that we needed four ovens; unfortunately, we only had one, and I put my foot down and refused to buy three more ovens for this meal. Graig was the master turkey chef, guarding the oven door and fighting with all the other chefs who wanted to share oven space. Kay did the mushroom stuffing (although it was never stuffed in the turkey) and the pumpkin pie. Maciek prepared a gourmet cranberry-cherry sauce; Debbie did the mashed potatoes, broccoli, and butternut squash soup; Louise cooked rice and southern (naturally) gravy; Holley prepared an unusual but very good baked vegetable crescent roll ring; Jordan brought a cake; and Arleen brought an apple pie and a lemon meringue pie. The failure to meet our 2 o’clock schedule was primarily due to staring at that thermometer which was very reluctant to hit the magical 161 degrees. Graig blamed it on all the other chefs opening the oven door to cram their dishes in. As the overall chief chef supervisor, it was all I could do to maintain peace during the prep phase. Louise and Kay laid out a beautiful table setting in our freshly painted dining room with the 13 adults at the main table and five young’uns at the breakfast table. This was the first time since we lost Leigh that we had that many at the table (what used to be an almost weekly happening), and as is our typical family custom, we sat around for over an hour after the meal sharing stories and laughs.

On Monday, two carloads of us went up to Asheville, where we toured Biltmore Estate and enjoyed Asheville’s night life, returning on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday morning, Louise’s sister, Jane came up with her husband, Jimmy, and Louise’s brother, Les. We had a wonderful brunch with a mixture of California and South Carolina cuisine.

I had every intention of enjoying a long nap on Wednesday afternoon in preparation for driving Graig and his crowd to the Atlanta airport at 5 AM on Thursday. However, I got suckered into joining a kickball game in the back yard. I quickly learned that I still have that competitive drive, but unfortunately, not the body to support that drive. In legging out a homerun, I tweaked the upper part of my quadricep muscle. I’ll be walking a little gimpy for a few days.

On Wednesday evening, we enjoyed a candle-lit dinner, made special by Graig presenting a beautiful engagement ring to Debbie.  A few bottles of champagne later, we were all ready for a couple hours of sleep before dashing to the airport.  I returned from transporting Graig’s crew to Atlanta in time for Kay and Maciek to graciously treat Louise and me to  a great buffet brunch at the Village Cafe in Pendleton before they left for the Greenville airport.

We’ve weathered some stormy times, but we have much to be thankful for.

Graig’s masterpiece