Thanksgiving 2019

If I am counting right - though you can never count on me to count right - next year it will be our 25th Thanksgiving Dinner with our friends here in Germany; so this was the 24th. I'll have to check it out for a major celebration next year.

Regardless, lots of things don't change.  The basic guest list, though of course even that has changed a bit.  The basic menu.  That has changed very little.

At the beginning, we had to bring an extra table to the dining area, but our "new" table has taken care of that.  THANK GOODNESS!  Taking the other table apart, dragging it downstairs, putting it up, taking it apart, putting it together again upstairs - work it was! OK, we've got it down.

Sort of.  There's still the chair problem.  If we have 9 around the table, we have the chairs.  With 10, it has meant using the Grandpa chair which is a bit awkward.  This year we had 10 again, but Werner suggested we use a garden chair.  That worked better.

Our very special guests this year were René and Rima, therefore the Sunday date.  And it was a treat all around having them here - they enjoyed taking part in a tradition of ours and our regular guests were so interested in getting to know R&R better.  What fun!

There's very little messing with the menu, except of course the soup.  This year it was a puréed chickpea soup with some eastern spices.  Our guests are so clever!  It only took a minute to figure it out!

Otherwise, it was the usual.

Turkey. The butterflied turkey is no beauty, but is still the star.

Dressing, black-eyed peas, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, plenty of gravy, roasted brussels sprouts.

We ate, we talked, we indulged ourselves.

Afterwards, some of us walked, but I stayed behind with René and Rima who were whizzes at washing the dishes!  Wow.  That was such a help coming to the end of the day.

Then it was time for the predictable pecan pie and Key lime pie, another tradition we don't mess with. There was some discussion about messing with tradition and our friends agree that we don't need chocolate chips in our pecan pie or cinnamon in the sweet potatoes.  Just give us what we expect on Thanksgiving! Of course, I have had the distinct advantage of shaping our guests' "traditions."

In the end, what works best is having friends and family around the table.  

Always.