Thanksgiving, being the middle child of holidays that it is, occasionally gets overlooked. Between its creepy brother Halloween and flashy sister Christmas, poor Thanksgiving sometimes becomes nearly an afterthought. However, since I am fond of gorging with family, I’ve never been guilty of such neglect.
Thanksgiving provides an excellent excuse to spend hours preparing from-scratch dishes and reminiscing with relatives. One or two of you may recall that last year I vowed to bake homemade piecrusts this Thanksgiving and I’m happy to report that I made it so. My friend Wendy graciously showed me her crust secrets and I, in return, tutored her on the correct way to make some Southern fillings. Thanks to Wendy’s wise teachings, I made French coconut pie, frozen lemonade pie and my standard sweet-potato pie entirely from scratch this year. Who’s the pie master?
Our Thanksgiving began earlier than normal this time with us donning Mayflower attire and racing around the Thanksgiving Point golf course in the Pilgrim Run. It was a pretty frigid morning but the “historical” wears were quite hilarious and worth facing the gnawing winter for.
The rest of our day was spent with our families in the usual chaotic fashion. Between games of Rise of Augustus and animated discussions about Black Friday strategies, the day was gone remarkably fast leaving fond memories and too-full bellies in its hectic wake.
Thanksgiving, you may be doomed to be forgotten between the hordes of costumed kids pursuing candy and the scourges of savage shoppers seeking Christmas, but I vow to always honor you with an endless offering of pies and what feels like an endless amount of family bonding.