Thanksgiving

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving!

It's funny how our minds work. This morning, after a conversation about Thanksgiving dinner, I thought of a friend of mine on the far left coast. I had the opportunity to visit with Zay and her husband a little over a year ago and thoroughly enjoyed their hospitality. I was on a tight schedule and I only spent a day and a half in their Hobbit neatly tucked into the heavily wooded hillside near Santa Clara.

During my visit, Zay received a package from UPS (I think). She brought it in the house and opened it. I remember that she was, if not excited, she was at least very glad to receive it. It was evidently the last piece of her Thanksgiving dinner puzzle. Zay’s smile broadened as she carefully reached into the brown box, her fingers carefully making their way through the packaging material. I’m sure the furrows on my confused brow swirled into a huge question mark as she pulled her hand from the box. I finally saw it; I saw a mason jar filled with . . . well . . . filled with stuff. The stuff was coarse and granular.

Upon recognizing my confusion, she explained that it was the brine mixture for her turkey. This was foreign to me. I don’t know anybody here in the Pennsylvania Dutch country that soaks their turkey in brine. Very likely there are people that do it, but nobody I know. The mixture of salt and spices are then dissolved/mixed in water and the turkey is marinated in it before being placed in the oven. It sounds very interesting and something I would like to try sometime. Let’s face it; turkey is not the most flavorful meat in the world and adding the bouquet of flavors from the brine has to be an improvement. Oh yeah, it just might be safer than that hot oil thing too.

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This Thanksgiving will be bittersweet. Rolling into this week our small family was flying high on the wings of the accomplishments of my two granddaughters. Then yesterday my son and his pregnant wife excitedly went to the doctor’s for their first chance to hear the tiny baby’s heartbeat; except . . . there was none.

This little creature of God never got a chance to know how much it was wanted. I, for one, have never known two people that are better candidates for parenthood. They deserve to have a child. If only things could be different for them. . .

The reality is, I have a lot to be thankful for, and at the top of my list are my granddaughters (my daughter’s daughters). My younger granddaughter (11 years old) is a gymnast and the older (14 years old) is a soccer goalie. The most important thing is that they both get A’s in school. The older sister always has gotten superior marks but the younger has traditionally struggled; to the point where they almost held her back a grade two years ago. As it turns out, they discovered she has Attention Deficit Disorder – how they discovered it is a long story, I’ll just say her gymnastics coach had a lot to do with it. So, now she is on meds and Bingo! Straight A’s and she can focus better in gymnastics. She won the state title (Level 5) in spring and won two events and the “All Around” in her meet this past weekend.

The older and her mother (my daughter) just got back from Tampa last night. Her team had qualified to represent the Mid-Atlantic States in the Super-Y League North American soccer championships. They went as the number two seed from the region. They won their bracket in the preliminary rounds (the tournament started last Friday) to move on to the semi-final elimination round. They won 3-2 after two overtimes to advance to the championship round yesterday. Unfortunately, they lost 3-1 in that game against a very dominating, well-coached team (this team went through the tournament undefeated). Older’s team took a lot of positives from the tourney: 1) on their way to winning their bracket, they beat a team that hadn’t been beaten in 14 months; 2) in the semi game, they trailed 1-0 for most of the game but found a way to score in the last 30 seconds to send it into overtime – they didn’t give up and hang their heads like they usually do, they are learning how to win; 3) and this is no small point, being second in North America ain’t bad!

So, yes, this Thanksgiving will be a bittersweet one, but life goes on. We are, I believe, a strong family and hopefully we will be able to focus on the positive moments we’ve experienced.

Wishing everyone a great Thanksgiving, a very enjoyable, love-filled Christmas, and all my best wishes for a prosperous, healthy New Year.

Thanks for reading me,

Don