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I RAISED A GLASS THIS EVENING to the momentous event that occurred seventy years ago this very day. Sans that happenstance, good heavens, I don't know WHERE I'd be!

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AND NOW IT'S BACK TO FULL- TIME REALITY for me, Reader Dear. Combined with the first whole day without the cheerful clatter of extra loved ones in the house is the dreary effect of weather that is darkly dense and gray.

So I broke two eggs into a skillet for lunch, and it was like looking at the sun with double vision. I felt that the spinach, onion and chopped red pepper provided a pleasing framework, and that lit up my day as well (really, Dear Reader, it takes so little on a day such as this).

Also breaking the gloom were the lights on the neighbors' many outdoor Christmas trees
(though I do prefer solar-powered cheer).

For supper my yard man and I ate the last of the leftover turkey out of the fridge,* prompting me to classify the meal as our Fifth and Final Feast of Thanksgiving.





*(Cranberry sauce, on the other hand, may still be gracing our meals as we dismantle the Christmas tree, [yet to be mantled!]).
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THE CARETAKERS OF MY SMALL ACTOR had to bid The Yard Man and me farewell this morning. They left behind a night light, a phone charger, a washcloth and a pair of socks...but, alas, they took the Small Actor with them.
They left while the day, very much like the small actor, was relatively young.

The weather being so ideal for a hike, my other small star-- the Little Actor, et al (all those of us who dote on him and were planning to come back from the hike and heat up the Thanksgiving Day leftovers for one more family feast) took ourselves to an ideal spot for such an endeavor....and took one!










It was lovely and free for the taking, and we took it with relish!
(Much like we took the repast that followed,
which we took with [cranberry] sauce, as well).
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A SATURDAY THANKSGIVING DAY
is what happens when Saturday is the only day that works for everyone in the family to come together to eat turkey and filling and sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts and potatoes au gratin and broccoli and cranberry sauce and pumpkin cheesecake and Happy Baby Organic Puffs.


A spectacular sunset is what happens when the Saturday Thanksgiving Day has been a very good one, including a short re-enactment of the very first Thanksgiving Day (in which sweet potatoes are introduced as a brand-new food), and ending with a horse-drawn wagon ride to the vegetable patch of the yard man and the gleaning of broccoli and cauliflower and beets by those who call the man "Dad."
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THANKSGIVING WEEK OLIO.

DAY follows day, and it is wonderful and awful at the same time. Wonderful, of course, in that the house teems with loved ones with whom I rarely get enough time. I'm continually grasping at minutes here and there in which to relax in the moment and forget entirely the fact that the next meal is always just a few hours away. (Giving you a big slab of a clue as to what may be awful about it). If it's not some other quotidian task, then food procurement, food preparation and food clean-up are forever grasping at me!
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"I'm calling because I've got a mouse problem," said a tenant of mine today. "I caught one in a trap, and I need one of your maintenance workers to come and take it away. I absolutely cannot touch a dead animal!"
"Sorry, I don't have any maintenance workers that do that," I told her. "You should get some of those traps where the mouse goes inside and you never have to see or touch it."
"That's what I've got!" she said. "But I can't even touch that! I just can't do it! I really, really CANNOT touch dead animals! Do you know of anyone who could help me out?"
"Well," I said. "I guess I could do it myself. I will have to shriek and holler and shudder, but I should be able to do it."
When I called her back later, she informed me that her son-in-law had done the deed.
(Three cheers for the son-in-law!)
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My yard man took his whole family (with the exception of his son-in-law, who went to work today--three cheers for the son-in-law!) to Green Dragon Farmer's Market. Fortunately, I was part of the entourage, as well as my two tiny actors. The weather was simply marvelous on this Black Friday afternoon...and the market-- oh my!
(There's too much to say,Reader Dear, so I don't think I'll try. The best I can do is promise a description by and by.)
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Movies: An Evening Trilogy

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