Simple Gifts

A year of patience, a year of simple gifts. Thanksgiving was celebrated at home,  around a seventy year old table that was a gift from a friend this year. Our turkey, stuffing, the fixings...was a result of our teamwork. We sat down and ate in almost complete disbelief of how great we can be in the kitchen. Such a delicious meal.

After, there was the "fruit salad" my Granmo would always serve after Thanksgiving dinner and in the very same sherbet cups that she'd use. August asked for more cherries, just like I did when I was a kid. I called my Granmo and she and my Granpo were having friends and family drop in. My Granpo, a new man from the one I wrote about only a few months ago.

As we exchanged and read off the things we are thankful for, the fact that I still have them in my life was up there. I was also thankful for a table that quickly filled with food after I took this photo, the centerpiece of pine cone turkeys made without much of my help by our three year old and having Papi home for five days. While the days were kept busy with drives to Christmas tree farms in the rain, thrift stores, and standing in the cold to catch a downtown parade, with stops for hot coffee, chai lattes and hot chocolate, it was the best sort of busy, family busy. Today, we finish off the left overs, the flavors so much richer than the first time around.