Thanksgiving weekend:

Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.

--Margaret Cousins

Another harvest feast come and gone. We spent it with some friends since neither of us have family for miles (and I couldn't leave because of pending deadly deadlines). The nice part is that we get to split the cooking, most of which we were able to start Wednesday night. So, I tried out a new recipe for Martha Stewart's green bean casserole (fabulous!), the husband was in charge of the mashed potatoes, grilling the asparagus and pineapple and finishing the cornbread stuffing after I baked a huge pan of cornbread, and my daughter was put in charge of the eight dozen butter rolls. This was a bit of an adventure. We put the double batch of roll-dough in a large bowl and left it on the stove top to rise for a couple of hours before bed. When I went to punch it down before sticking it in the fridge for the night, I was surprised and bemused to see how vigorous the yeast was! There was viscous, gluey roll-dough exploding out of the bowl - all over the stove top and tumbling down the gap between the oven and refrigerator in large, sticky clumps... Twenty gooey, dough-filled cleaning-up minutes later, I got the remaining mass contained, covered and chilling to restrict further incursions on the kitchen.

Thursday morning was spent finishing up the cooking. We went over to our friend's house in the early afternoon and combined our foodstuffs booty (their generous yummy contributions of brined turkey (best turkey ever!), ham, mushroom stuffing, sweet potatoes with maple butter, fruit salad, fabulous fresh cranberry compote and various sparkling beverages filled out the menu) and proceeded to eat ourselved into a food coma. We were too full for the various pie-offerings that evening and had to wait until the following day before we could make room for dessert.

The advantage of all the cooking and feasting is the permutations the leftovers take. Turkey soup, turkey sandwiches, and my favorite - turkey quiche (the crust of which is made from leftover stuffing).


Other than the couple of cooking and feasting breaks, the rest of the week is a studio blur. In order to facilitate more compelling butt-in-chair hours, I 'watched' (I don't really 'watch' while working - so it only works with movies I've seen before - hence much less visually distracting) the entire, extended "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, complete with ALL the extended-version commentary. It really was inspiring to hear about the creative team's amazing, innovative, imaginative, and resourceful absolute dedication to excellence. You know about extreme athletes - these guys are extreme creatives!

Makes me feel wimpy.

However, I AM grateful for a really good job illustrating things I like best.
I am grateful that my husband is employed.
I am grateful for two gorgeous, talented, brilliant, caring children.
I am grateful that all of our material needs are met.
I am grateful for supportive family and friends.
I am grateful for my spiritual beliefs.
And I am grateful for this time of year which reminds us to take a minute and acknowledge the many things that we are blessed with.