Ahhh, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is truly one of my favorite holidays. It may be because of the five day weekend that accompanies it, but mostly it is because of the food. And not just eating the food, although that part is wonderful, especially because, according to my friend Rachel, calories don't count on Thanksgiving. The best part of Thanksgiving for me is the cooking. I relish in the task to prepare such a meal. I love preparing the turkey with a nice rub of sage, thyme, nutmeg, cinnamon, and bay leaves. I love the look of the turkey as the skin slowly turns to a golden brown. I love tediously making the dough for rolls and the arduous task of letting them rise only to punch them down, roll them, shape them, and let them rise again. Then comes the reward of smelling fresh made rolls baking in the oven. I love combining the ingredients for cranberry sauce and listening to the cranberries pop due to the heat. Let's not forget the stuffing of bread, green apples, cranberries, bacon, and Gorgonzola cheese. Or the sweet potatoes with green apples, butter, salt, and brown sugar. The mashed potatoes, the gravy, a nice green salad, and green beans (not that nasty casserole but really green beans with butter and toasted almonds). But my favorite part of the feast are the pies-apple and pumpkin. I get so much satisfaction in seeing a few apples, a can of pumpkin, flour, and shortening turn into beautiful treats.
So this year I didn't do the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, rolls, or stuffing. The job of cooking was split up between Rachel, Jenny, and I. We had a great time even though there was the nasty green bean casserole (sorry, Rach, I told you I thought it was nasty). I have truly come to realize that blood or marriage is not a necessary qualification for family. We had this with the West's in DC and now we have it with many others here in NC. What a blessing it is to have "family" everywhere we go.
So, Thanksgiving was great! We all pigged out and then Jordan was off to the hospital. He was on-call all weekend and we didn't see much of him. Poor Guy! I think he had 4-5 hours of sleep from Thursday to Sunday. I just don't know how he does it.
We really missed Dad when we went to the zoo in Ashboro. It was wonderful! It had a San Diego Zoo/Wild Animal Park feel to it. The animals had so much room and the habitats were very nice. Yes, this is the animal advocate in me. I love zoos, but only if they are good places for the animals. I was pointing out to the girls that most of the elephants had been caught in the wild in the 70's and early 80's and then went on a tangent about how the animals should be left in their natural habitats. I am well on my way to brainwashing my yet-to-see-the-circus-because-they-treat-animals-badly kids. The funny thing is that I sure do like to eat a good steak every once in a while. I guess it is just the wild and endangered animals that I really am concerned about so don't comment on the injustices in slaughter houses and chicken farms. I know they are bad. Killing an animal for food is one thing, beating and starving an animal just because they won't do what you say is another. So there is my political soapbox for the day. Back to the zoo. We were there all day and they really have a beautiful facility. It is huge and took us 4 and 1/2 hours to see the whole thing.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!