Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life

Thanksgiving

For me, Thanksgiving is a bigger holiday than pretty much any other. It has more meaning and I celebrate it more. To me, it means coming together with friends and family to express thanks for their influence on us and our lives.

A long time ago, my then-roommate (now brother-in-law) and I started having a big dinner the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We had a lot of friends who weren't natives, or didn't have local family, or otherwise had no place to go for Thanksgiving. So we invited them into our home to become a part of our family.

Since then, our world has changed a lot -- a lot of our friends are married, with families of their own. The social orphans are fewer these days. And yet, Rachel and I continue it. There are more kids now (as opposed to none before -- unless you counted us) and it's not quite as wild. The people are still pretty darn interesting, however, because that's how I like 'em.

What surprises -- still -- and delights me is that even though so many of these people are from very different worlds and have very different experiences and world views, they all seem to get along just fine and even seem to enjoy themselves and each others' company. That is what gives me the greatest joy of all -- the ability to share a good time with others.

I told Rachel the other day that if I could, I would host a huge get-together like this at least once a month and preferably once a week. Right now, that's not realistic (especially if I want to stay married) but at some point in the near future, I would love to designate one night as an open house night -- everyone is welcome to just drop by for dinner. They could bring something if they like or we can always make things stretch for one more. I don't know if anyone would ever come, but if they did, I'm sure I reap the rewards of their company.

The problem, of course, is that there's a lot of preparation and clean-up involved in such get-togethers. This Thanksgiving we had more than twenty adults and six kids (including our own):

• John and Diane
• Craig and Kari
• Johnny and Gemma (and two kids)
• Jennifer and Jeff (and two kids)
• Marilyn and Dave
• Harry (who did 99% of the cooking)
• Daniel
• Hal and Dorothy
• Roger (not me)
• Lowell and Mickey (and grown son)
• Rachel and I (and Jared and Sara)

There may have been others, but sometimes it's hard to keep count. At least two other couples (with assorted kids) couldn't make it due to illness and one couple was busy moving to Indiana. All this in a two-bedroom house with the world's worst kitchen. But, I had a grand time and, I'd like to think, so did everyone else.

Now, if you didn't get the notice and think you ought to have, it might be because we pulled this together at the last minute (we have kids, dontcha know) so we (I, really) probably accidentally left you off the e-mail. Or, I may not have your current e-mail address. (Or you might not check your e-mail.) Just so next year isn't quite so last minute, here's official notice -- save the Saturday after Thanksgiving next year for dinner at our place.

[ Posted: 18:00 | home | print ]

Instead of having a dinner, have a potluck dinner. We`ll bring Japanese curry!

Posted by L.

I gave up trying to convince people not to bring something this year and just said to bring a side dish. We only had the turkey as a main dish, but it fed everyone (but almost no leftovers. 8^( I like turkey leftovers.) I'm thinking I'd like to have another get-together soon -- perhaps it will be easier to convince Rachel if it's a potluck... Besides, I *like* Japanese curry!

Posted by Uncle Roger