Neighbor Logan (8) entertained us as his parents put the finishing touches on a lovely dinner. The things he could do to his face defy description. When I got out the camera, he posed with his pig face.
The party was perfect, almost halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Shawn baked a turkey with all the trimmings, and Bob was mashing the potatoes when we came in. Their house was beautifully decorated for Christmas. The weather got in on the act, too. We arrived in rain and left with snow accumulating on the ground. In between, we talked about the neighborhood, Christmas movies, sales of homes, local bakeries, and other topics that brought many laughs.
For the foodies: We had turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, vegetable casserole, and homemade rolls. Yes, we were almost in a food coma before dessert. I brought a toasted coconut pie, like a Southern chess pie. Neighbor Connie brought a cake with white chocolate raspberry frosting. It was even better than the name sounds. It’s surprising we could walk away from the table unaided.
I took a photo of us at the table, which included Logan looking like the handsome boy he really is. Instead of that one, I’ll show you the one Logan took with my camera. He did a great job, didn’t he?
Bob, Shawn, Marla, me, Connie, and John. Photo by Logan.
All the fun people who stayed with us the week before and after Thanksgiving went home. This was the most hectic and satisfying November holiday we’ve ever had. There is one thing I would have changed, and that is cousin Debi’s overnight stay in the hospital on her way here. We were sorry to lose a day of visiting, but we were thankful she was fine.
It would have been great to have a laugh-meter to measure our mirth. I don’t know why we found so many things amusing, but we did and usually do. The turkey was perfect, serving us twice with a half cup left over. I think it fed 13 in total. Wouldn’t it be nice if all turkeys were so well-behaved? Stuffing was another matter. We need to buy some chicken to make the quart of it disappear.
I thought life might become a bit boring after Thanksgiving, but it didn’t. A couple we have begun to know at church sat in the pew in front of us. What a surprise it was to see them heading to the front door of a restaurant across town as we pulled into the parking lot! Linda and Gil invited us to share a table, and we had a delightful meal together. While they waited for me to finish eating, Gil told a story while folding a napkin. He is an illusionist, occasionally giving the children’s sermon in church, using magic to make a point. Everyone sits up to see what he will do. At the table he tore up the folded napkin and used the pieces to finish telling the story. What fun! I took photos, but I did not ask their permission to post them. A woman at the next table spoke to Gil as we got up. She had enjoyed his story, too.
Monday, neighbor Shawn asked if we would be home at school bus time, in case she didn’t get back from an appointment in time to get Logan. I texted her that we would be home all day and might get lonely by afternoon. She sent a grin back and said Logan had missed us. Logan probably asked to come over to see us during the past two weeks, and his parents would have told him to stay away because we had company. Shawn was back in time for the bus. John was outside raking leaves, and Logan joined him.
Logan raked and said it was fun to use the wheelbarrow. He offered to wheel the leaves down to the burn pile. John went with him the first time or so, and then they took turns. John said he handled it skillfully all by himself. He takes after his practical, hard-working parents. The November holiday may be over, but life in the mountains continues to delight us.
As a late birthday gift for Lise and an early one for me, son John $ arranged for us to have a night in a cabin by the river. What a treat! John drove us to Madison County and treated us to lunch.
Rose, John $, John, Lise
After John left for choir rehearsal, the rest of us had a light supper. $’s friend Rose had her dog Sadie there. Lise loved playing with Sadie, as did $. When we sat in the living room, the old family stories began to come out. There was lots of laughter as we teased each other.
Brother and sister shared the dog, much to the dog’s delight. Both are very good with dogs.
The next morning I took a photo of the French Broad River from the porch of the cabin. It was very soothing to watch the flow of the water and hear it through the night.
$ was taking us up the mountain behind his place when he suddenly stopped and said, “There’s a bear!”
I got my best shot out of the window. Lise jumped out and took a video of the bear climbing down the tree. I meant to ask her for a copy of it before she left. We were all excited at that close viewing.
$ knows the owner of the house on top of the mountain. He took us on the porch to see the marvelous view. The people are not there often, but when they are, they have it all! You can’t beat mountains and a river. I take that back. You might prefer a desert or a view of skyscrapers, but I’d vote for peaks and falling water every time.
I was surprised at the sound of the river that high up. $ said in the summer, he can understand conversations of rafters on the river. They talk louder than normal, and the sound rises up.
Staying in the cabin was a marvelous way to end our two-week Thanksgiving celebration.
After all other visitors left, Lise went with us to see the Christmas decorations at Biltmore, the mansion built by George Vanderbilt. Lise and John posed before the tree at the base of the grand staircase.
I told them I’d walk through quickly and wait for them at the next place where seats were provided for visitors. They kept up with me! I just wanted to see how the house was decorated and how things were different from last year. That’s all they wanted, too. The huge, live tree in the grand dining hall was as impressive as always.
We ate dinner, went shopping in a newly reopened Aldi’s, and combed Ingle’s for the foods Lise’s friends requested. Many of you know that Aldi’s is a grocery store based in Germany, with stores all over the world. We like the prices and, at this time of year, the imported Christmas goodies. I thought I had enough energy left to shop at our Southern grocery store, Ingle’s. It was our usual weekly shopping day, and Lise looked for foods to take back to Denmark. I think we would have found things easily in our usual store, but to save time, we went to a different one on the way home. After a while, I sat down on a bench to wait for John and Lise. I was one tired heap, having not factored in our morning walk, the extensive walking through Biltmore, the search for things in a different Aldi’s store, as well as the alternate Ingle’s store. Revived a bit, I came home to do battle with some yeast dough. It was as tight as a rubber band, and I didn’t have time to let it rest. I was very disappointed in the four coffeecakes, as I put them in the refrigerator to be baked the next day. I didn’t kill anyone in my exhausted state, so the day ended peacefully. Amazingly, the coffeecakes turned out much better than expected.
Before cousins Debi and Peter left, they brought out their instruments. Peter played the small psalmodikon and demonstrated the larger one.
He has researched the history of these instruments and could easily tell you far more than you could remember. He showed John something about the more common dulcimer.
Debi plays them, as well as the hammered dulcimer. She didn’t bring it with her, but I love to hear her play.
There was just time for a quick visit with the neighbor horses before they left. Some people like horses at a distance, but Debi gave them a treat in order to see them up close.
The day after cousins Debi and Peter arrived, grandson Nathaniel had to go back to college. We had lunch after church in Asheville.
Nathaniel, John, Lise, Debi, Peter
All six of us piled in the car and drove to Charlotte. It probably took two and a half hours. We figured we could visit in the car and not miss a moment of being together. Photos taken during a break show the faces of three of our traveling guests.
Nathaniel offered to pose in his dorm room, and who was I to refuse?
Nathaniel’s bed is the neat one.
In the parking lot, I saw his view of the city of Charlotte for the first time. Those tall buildings were just a few blocks away. The stadium was in view, too. We knew the trip home was going to be long, because a game had just let out. There were various groups of people dressed alike and walking together, as well as gridlock in the streets. John deftly maneuvered us away from the city center, and we shortly hit molasses traffic on the interstate. Lise used to live in the area, so she directed us on back streets. The trip home was twice as long as it would have been on a normal day, but we could talk as much or as little as we liked.
The next day, as we sat at the dining room table, I said, “I miss Nathaniel.”
I may have imagined that Lise and John steeled themselves for an outburst of grandmotherly grief. They laughed when I continued, “No matter where he sat at the table, he could reach anything and pass it to you.”
A footnote for Rooster: Nathaniel told us at church that he had forgotten something at the house. In the hubbub of leaving, he didn’t lower the mirror in the foyer. We all agreed this was not a terrible thing, since he will be back for Christmas in less than a month.
We were having supper and noticed a car in front of our house. When my phone rang, we were sure it was John’s cousin Peter and wife Debi announcing they were outside as expected. Debi was talking, but she explained that she was in the emergency room of a Knoxville hospital. They had driven from Illinois, and she didn’t feel well. She ended up being admitted to the hospital for further tests. After niece Julie left us the next morning, daughter Lise, grandson Nathaniel, John, and I drove an hour and a half to Knoxville to visit Peter and Debi in the hospital. We were afraid they would have to return to Illinois without seeing us. Probably because we went, Debi was cleared to leave about two and a half hours after we got there. I made them pose in the hospital room for illustrative purposes. You can’t see the grumbling, can you?
A light-hearted moment came when Lise dared Nathaniel to sit on her lap.
Backtrack with me to breakfast. Nathaniel wanted to make biscuits from a recipe one of his culinary teachers gave him. He kindly posed with the biscuits. I told him friends Karen and Al from NY, who know Nathaniel well, would drool over that plate. My opinion? The biscuits were easily the best I’ve ever eaten. They were buttery, flaky, tender, and as tasty as could be.
Disregard the bed-head. He looked normal later.
Nate’s Aunt Lise asked him to turn around. What was on his pants? It was a floury hand-print, which called for another documentary photo.
Hours later we had our second Thanksgiving feast, left-overs reheated. It was easy for me with no prep involved and with Nathaniel as the kitchen assistant. John and Nathaniel set the table, and we were all thankful and relaxed after a long day.
Nathaniel, Lise, John, Peter, and Debi
Nathaniel, bless his heart, insisted on washing the dishes while we visited with Debi and Peter. One of these days he might be declared a national treasure.
We knew there would be lots of laughs when turkey-head Marla came in with her mother.
For the foodies, here is our menu:
Turkey, dressing, gravy, frozen cranberry salad, spicy cranberries from a 100-year old recipe, rolls that looked like biscuits, lemon-lime Jell-o salad, creamed butternut squash, green bean casserole, and green pea-cashew salad. Desserts were something else! Neighbor Connie baked a blackberry cake, and we all tasted that one first. It got a solid round of applause. Luscious! Grandson Nathaniel created a chocolate cake with crème de menthe chips and a mirror glaze. It was superb. I said to forget the pumpkin cheesecake I baked. We have it every year, and they could take some home. That met with approval, and they did take slices with them.
Marla’s dog Albert needed to be fed, so we persuaded her to bring him back with her. We loved his Christmas tie.
For 25 years I never missed going to church on Thanksgiving Day. I played the organ for the service and went to our big family dinner free as a bird. I had baked the pies for the dinner the day before, so it was an easy day for me. I didn’t think I could manage everything today until Nathaniel said he would watch the turkey. I said I had time to take a shower and go with John to Asheville.
Nathaniel asked, “What about breakfast?”
I said with surprise, “I forgot about that.”
We all had cereal together before John and I rushed off. Before the service, I stepped into the aisle to take a photo of the altar. The decorations of pumpkins and gourds made me giggle, because it looked like a brown teddy bear was sitting there in the middle. Can you see that illusion?
Back at home, everything was under control. Nathaniel said the turkey was done long before the time I estimated. The reason our dinner went so smoothly was that Nathaniel helped with everything. He set the table while we were at church, having polished several silver serving pieces and trivets. As I put food in bowls, he ferried them to the table, adding serving pieces on the way. At the end of the meal, we passed dirty dishes to him, and he organized them. The company did as I requested and visited in the living room while I put food away and John loaded the dishwasher and washed the pots and pans. As we gathered at the table for dessert, Nathaniel cut the cakes and served them. He was at my side every single time I needed him. He knew exactly what needed to be done and did it without fanfare. Oh! If only everyone had a chef in the family to make everything appear effortless!
Things were quieter with only five of us in the house. Grandson Nathaniel began making his treat for Aunt Lise, and I was amused at the way he checked the cake in the oven. I would have opened the door and leaned over, but he had a better view by kneeling.
Nathaniel put warm chocolate mint cake in a snifter, topped it with ice cream, and presented it to John and me. What a treat! Lise and Julie missed that, because they hadn’t gotten back from taking Patty home.
The next day Nathaniel modeled his uniform from school (Johnson & Wales). He wore checkered pants, white jacket, and white apron. The dark green around his neck denotes a first-year baking and pastry student. The students are required to press the apron with a sharp crease in the front, and it must be pristine. The jacket must have a crease in the middle of the back and creases on the arms. Pockets on his sleeve hold a pen, a Sharpie, and a thermometer. One of the most-used rooms in the dorm is the laundry room, one on every floor. The school provides an ironing board for each room.
Nathaniel prepared the chocolate frosting and used a bit of it to pipe some roses, which he let us eat.
John’s sister Barbara, with husband Thom, arrived in the afternoon. We made the most of the time, chatting over dinner and all the afternoon. By suppertime, we got into serious laughter as we told story after story. Some were new, and some were old, but all got their fair share of laughs.
Grandson Nathaniel prepared eggnog for us, having gotten milk, heavy cream, and spices while shopping with his aunt Lise. It was a wonderful kickoff for Thanksgiving dining. He donated his pecan pie for dessert, and we polished it off.
My name is Suki, my human is a writer, and this is about my world. The world according to Suki The Cat. My humans smell funny, look weird, and I can't understand a thing they say, but they feed me, so hey, what are you gonna do?
Mehrling Muse 