Thanksgiving Postmortem

Nov 25, 2006

Thanksgiving with my family is an event with a long tradition behind it, and this year followed in the same basic footprints as the others. Since my parents just had their kitchen redone, this year’s Thanksgiving was held at our house. A total of fifteen folks were in attendance: our four family, our family friend Mark, and all the Pete Smyths.

I’ll start off with the food, which our family does quite well. In all, the menu consisted of two turkeys (one barbecued, one roasted), turkey pilaf, stuffing, borags, yams, brussel sprouts, green beans, spinach salad, and Waldorf salad. Plus the usual selection of breads, olives, pickles, cranberry sauce, and the like. For dessert, there was apple pie, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin cheesecake. It was fantastic.

Aside from the food, pretty much we just hung around and talked. After dinner, in order to clear out the house a bit so that people could clean up, all the little kids, their parents, and myself went off to my old elementary school. I love playing with little kids, it’s just a joyous time. I’m not entirely sure about having kids of my own, at least for the time being, but enjoying the kids of other people is just fantastic.

Perhaps most interesting to me about these kinds of days, from an intellectual perspective, is to watch how the social dynamics play out. Aside from Mark and the kids, all these people have known each other for somewhere between several years (for the spouses) to several decades (for the blood relatives). In a group like that, it’s very interesting to see what the topics of conversation are, who talks to whom, who sits next to whom at the dinner table, and so forth.

Also interesting is the postmortem that always happens at the end of an event like this. Once all the folks go home, when our four family finally gets a chance to relax, we inevitably discuss all the funny stories and awkward moments, as well as the simple truths about everyone who showed up.

Overall, though, a very enjoyable day.