Feasting with Friends

The turkey was nearly cooked by 4:30 when I sat down for a break to read my email.

Friends who we regularly get together with for Thursday night cocktails and dinner sent a message saying drinks were at their house at 5:30 and would we like to join them. The chinese food restaurant we usually go to was closed though, so they weren’t sure where we’d go for dinner…

We call our group, ‘The Drinking Club’ because that seems to be what we are best at! Actually, we’re a group of boaters who don’t boat in the winter so we get together at one of our homes once a week. The host home provides drinks and appetizers then we go for a ‘cheap chinese’ buffet.

Kent, Crystal and I and the 20 pound turkey were all by ourselves, so I immediately replied, “PLEASE come to our house instead for cocktails and turkey dinner”. Kent phoned as backup and they said they would arrive before 6 pm. Cool! The 3 of us rushed around, tidying up, setting the table and preparing the rest of the meal. There were 6 of them coming so we were 9 for dinner!

It was an awesome, impromptu evening – which is usually the best – of friends gathering, enjoying chatting, catching up, playing with Hugo and generally having a blast. Even if I do say so myself, the meal was great! To go from 3 to 9 people for dinner is a bit of a stretch, but Kent peeled extra potatoes, I organized and delegated and Crystal dusted and tidied. The turkey wasn’t as dried out as I expected, since dinner was 3 hours later than I planned – but, hey – you give the guests an extra drink and dinner is perfect, no matter the time.

I feel very fortunate to have celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in October and American Thanksgiving today with another turkey feast. This feels like a perfect world right now – until I stop to think of Mombai and the terrorism. My heart goes out to the people living through this terror, and I thank the US and Canadian Military for all they do to keep our country safe so we may enjoy our freedom – and our turkey dinner.