The house is quiet again. For the last three days it’s been filled with the sounds of Matt, Alisha, and their pair of rambunctious ten year-olds: Faith and Dylan (and their cat). It’s a wonderful noise! It makes the house sound alive. They were visiting from Atlanta – came down early for Thanksgiving since there were other family plans back up in Georgia on the specific day. And so we had ours on Monday, which is fine.
I’ve known Matt for a long, long time…since well before he was married with children. In fact, I was honored to be Best Man at his wedding. I constantly marvel at what good friends we are and have stayed. Although we’re not blood relatives we might as well be.
One of the things we have in common is that we both love to eat! As single guys with no local family, we’ve spent a lot of holidays together over the years. We both also like to cook, and by happy coincidence it turns out that we cook well together. We get along really well in the kitchen. This shouldn’t have been any surprise really. We’re great working on cars together, and if he were a pilot I know we’d get along well in the cockpit too. We’ve got some individual recipes that we bring to the table. We'd usually cook up a big, traditional holiday feast, even it was just for the two of us. This year Alisha joined us in the cooking. It was fantastic. The meal turned out awesome.
We did a turkey, of course; what kind of un-American pinko heathen would not have turkey on Turkey Day? For side dishes, Alisha did yams with marshmallows – yum! She also did a special side dish of green beans that was dee-licious! Matt did the chicken-cornbread dressing from scratch, a recipe he got from an aunt which is literally to die for. I did my world famous crabmeat potato salad. There was more…too much more, actually…an embarrassing amount of food for three so-called adults and two well-fed kids. But collectively we have a lot to be thankful for, and you know we Americans celebrate that thankfulness with food.
I’ve mentioned before that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. And this one was one of the best ones yet.
They’re gone now; they left Wednesday morning on one of the busiest travel days of the year. I’m happy to report they made it safely back to Atlanta. And so the house is quiet again. And as KC and the Sunshine Band once sang, that’s the way (uh-huh uh-huh) I like it. I love Matt and Alisha and their kids, but I do like my solitude.
Whether you celebrate this particular holiday in your culture or not, it’s good to occasionally take time to stop, step back and give thanks for all you have. I, for one have been extremely blessed. With the best family and friends a guy could ever hope for, I have the best life of anyone I know.
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Who Am I?
- Bob Barbanes:
- A nobody; a nitwit; a pilot; a motorcyclist; a raconteur; a lover...of life - who loves to laugh, who tries to not take myself (or anything) too seriously...just a normal guy who knows his place in the universe by being in touch with my spiritual side. What more is there?
4 comments:
Happy Thanksgiving Bob. That potato salad sounds incredible!
Happy Thanksgiving from an un-American pinko heathen who had sushi for Thanksgiving dinner.
Bob, it's an incredible dish - never fails to win praise:
5 large baking potatoes
1 pound of crabmeat
1 small jar of mayo
4 eggs
5 green onions
I always dice the potatoes into bite-size chunks and bring them to a boil for FOUR MINUTES - no more. Let them cool under cold tap water, S&P the potatoes to taste, and then mix everything together in a big bowl. Use the whole jar of mayo! Some people add chopped onion; sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Put it in the fridge to chill. Man, it's good!
(Tip: Better to have too much crabmeat than too little. As Alisha says about the dish, "There is no such thing as too much crabmeat!")
And Hal, somehow I figured it would be YOU who'd be doing the non-traditional Thanksgiving meal. ...Especially after reading your FB post about going to the Chinese restaurant ;)
Bob it sounds like you have the same kind of holiday dinners that I do. Not that I am complaining. A lot of good memories. I have a couple of friends that might as well be brothers.
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