By Lisa Batten Kunkleman
I’ll not make you wait like those infomercials that repeatedly say, “In just a minute, you’ll learn the secret to live forever, have an obedient dog, a perpetually happy toddler, and be the world’s best person. Nope. The secret is…drum roll…have your big shindig, feast, or family reunion on a different day than Thursday.
Yep. That’s it. We had our festivities for twenty-one loved ones, four granddogs and two cats on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and it was the Bomb Diggity. Travel was lighter and stores were not as crowded for our food prep shopping. I can proudly say, my stuffing and turkey were ready ahead of time so I could help others with the sudden need to bake twelve pies at once on Sunday morning. It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without dancing music (Beach Boys this time), and a kitchen filled with several bakers’ chaos on the morning of the feast.
While dancing around to “Little Saint Nick” and making chocolate chess pies, I forgot to cook my healthy, clean vegetables, the green beans, corn, and purple butter beans from our garden. They sat forgotten and uncooked or frozen while we devoured our first meal, which was a casserole-lover’s heaven. No problem. The veggies would be eaten later.
After three work/school days, on Wednesday night, to supplement the leftover turkey and ham, we bought rotisserie chickens and a roasted turkey breast, cooked the fresh veggies, and reheated the extra pans of dressing and casseroles for a full second Thanksgiving, already prepped. It might have even tasted better than the first meal.
Thanksgiving morning, our oldest daughter and son-in-law took their two boys to see the morning matinee of Zootopia 2, along with about six other people in the theater. Who knew theaters were open on Thanksgiving morning? Sounds like a new tradition to me.
At our house, on Thursday, actual Thanksgiving Day, instead of waking up early to get a turkey cooking, sweating in the toasty kitchen and trying to time the turkey and every dish perfectly for lunchtime, we pulled the already-prepped lunch from the fridge and welcomed the movie crew for more food and fun. Eight members of our immediate family enjoyed my mom’s famous “Lolo Soup” along with grilled cheese sandwiches. Mom was applauding from heaven. I felt it.
People took woods walks, encountered a too interested coyote, and discovered right then that our youngest daughter could scream a coyote away. People brought loads of firewood up to the house for the next few days’ cold snap and enjoyed watching the little kids help unload and stack the wood. Our son, Uncle Sam to the grandkids, rode bikes to a park with his nearly seven-year-old nephew, Wesley, while little brother Levi napped. Being the big brother has its perks.
Near suppertime, the adults played Settlers of Cataan (a board game), while the kids watched part of the recorded Macy’s Parade and a movie, K-Pop Demon Hunters, which is about a female pop band who hunts down a pop boy band of demons to protect humanity. It’s a music movie, not a bad scary movie like the title sounds, and the K-Pop singers even performed in the Macy’s Parade.
At six o’clock, we dragged out all the leftovers and nearly finished them up for this year’s Thanksgiving event. I hear we’re having Red Bowl (Asian food) when this food is gone. The most relaxing Thanksgiving is in the books, and I hope to repeat it next year. Same secret recipe. If possible, we shall get together the Sunday before the actual Thanksgiving Thursday. So, there you have it. That’s the family secret to a relaxing Thanksgiving. I hope your holiday is or was a delight.
