Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. One of the best I can remember. The food was great, and the company was delightful. It was what every holiday should be: relaxing.

Even though I started cooking Wednesday night and started cooking again about 8 a.m. on Thursday, I've come to enjoy the Zen of preparing a complicated meal. I guess I've done T-Day dinner enough before to have the comfort that I know what I'm doing. I had as much fun making it as I did eating it.

I got to, as Shannon would say, "put on the dog." Good china, gold (plated) flatware and some antique crystal I found at a thrift store a couple of years ago but almost never get to use.

We started with a honey-citrus fruit salad with holiday spices and moved on to turkey (most of it's still in the fridge), dressing, portabellas stuffed with vegetarian dressing, giblet gravy, vegetarian gravy, a cranberry relish with apples and celery, carrots with tarragon and mashed potatoes. Cherry pie for desert. (I didn't make the pie, but it was good.)

We sent an entire grocery bag of food home with John, our guest. He has Parkinson's and is mostly home-bound. Can't drive. Even walking is a problem. He was in the hospital the last 2 Thanksgivings, so we were happy to see him at least able to get out this one.

When he sat down and actually looked at the table, he started crying. I had finished it off while he and Shannon weren't looking, and I do lay an impressive table. (W and Cheney should talk to me about shock and awe.)

All in all, a very good day. I've matured enough to not get frantic over cooking, and Shannon's matured enough to stay the hell out of my kitchen when I'm doing it. I enjoyed everything from the planning to the shopping to the cooking to the eating in a way I haven't in a long, long time.

And John was so sweet. He brought a purple orchid that I'm determined not to kill. It's absolutely beautiful, but delicate and fragile. It reminds me of egg-shell china: I'm afraid to touch it because I might break it.

I did some research, and it's in a family that likes indirect light and water only when it's dry. I put it on the porch where is will get the light it needs. I think it's grown overnight.

I told John afterwards that he had to take the food with him if he wanted a ride home.

And if I had any spare money, I'd be out shopping today. But I don't. Instead, I think we're going to pawn off some more of our left-overs on another friend of Shannon's who is in the middle of moving and couldn't make it over yesterday. We can't help him move, but we can bring him food.

I took Shannon to the VA hospital on Tuesday for pre-op procedures. We go back next Friday so they can re-set his left big toe. It's out-patient surgery, but they have to put him under to do it. So we have to get up early, get him there early, spend the better part of a day there and then make the hour to hour and a half drive back home.

Good thing T-Day was fabulous, 'cause this coming week's gonna suck.

Still, Shannon has coverage that will pay for everything, thanks to the VA. Medicaid thinks that his SSI is too much money, but the VA doesn’t. Whether they will bill Medicare for it or not, I don’t know and ain’t gonna ask.

I’m thankful that we both have health care coverage. Mine costs about $7500 a year (1/4 of which I pay), and Shannon's is arguably better. But it’s better than a lot of plans out there right now, and it’s certainly better than none at all.

And I don't have to go back to work until Monday, so I have a couple of days to rest up before I have to brave I-35 again. (Being paid to stay home and employer-based health insurance, by the way, are among God's greatest innovations.)

Our rent’s going up in January, and we still have un-addressed repair issues. On the other side of the coin, I can walk to work, there’s a great small natural food grocery across the street and everything we need is within a few blocks, so we spend almost nothing on gas. And even though there’s been a spike in auto burglaries in the last few weeks, the streets are safe enough to walk at night. I never think twice about it.

We have a roof over our head (even though it’s also the floor of the cow-people upstairs) and we can afford to live in a nice, upscale but human-scale, livable neighborhood.

And my job is fairly secure, something of a luxury these days in and of itself. I have more vacation and sick time than I can take. I get 10 or 12 paid holidays a year on top of that.

Times are tough, and money’s tight. We have cut back spending for a lot of things. No extras right now.
Thanksgiving dinner is not an extra for us right now. And neither is offering hospitality to others who have even less than we do. When we have to cut Thanksgiving out of the budget, I’ll know we’re in trouble.

But we aren't and we don’t.

For that, I’m ever so humbly thankful.