Holiday Aftermath

Today I woke to snow but this part of the Coast Range didn't get much, and what there was left by noon. The cows and sheep complained until their feeders were refilled with a big round hay bale. They don't see beauty in snow; they just want to know where'd that grass go? The birds are happy the birdfeeders are full. Although the air outside is still cold, it is a peaceful day. The house is quiet-- nothing I have to do. Last week wasn't that way.

Last week was about preparations for having our children and grandchildren here to celebrate our Thanksgiving on Saturday. Turkey, giblet dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, homemade buns, raw veggies, a dip, cranberry sauce, an apple and 2 pumpkin pies all had to be prepared. I decorated the house with lots of candles, the Christmas decorations, holly, and fir boughs so it would seem festive.

How did the dinner turn out? This will go down, in my mental list of infamous dinners, as the year of the nearly 9 hour turkey. Sixteen pounds, put in a 325 degree oven at about 7 am, it should have been done before one... It was not even close. We all kept watching the temperature inside the bird, but it wasn't rising fast enough. I guess the oven thermostat is going out as that's about all I can imagine could have caused the problem. The oven was hot but the temperature simply wasn't what it said it was. This ended up being a slow-cooked bird when that was not the intent. Talk about frustrating to a cook who likes to have everything turn out at the same time and be beautifully served. So much for plans.

It wasn't a disaster though as the kids (yes they are in their 30s and 40s but they are kids to me) were all so good about it. They made it okay by their sense of humor; and when it finally was done, everything tasted great, nothing was badly overcooked. I did though give up on fancy dishes for serving and we dished up from the stove. I was so relieved it finally was done that I only wanted it eaten before something else went wrong.

I felt a mix of many emotions for this holiday. We watched the dvd, 'An Inconvenient Truth,' Friday night (more thoughts on it will be coming).

My granddaughter was taught to knit by her aunt.

We talked about the events happening in Iraq with more killings and bombings. The seeming hopelessness of a good solution there for those people.

The little boys went outside with the men. The not even three year old grandson sat on the backhoe seat and said-- stabilizers are down (okay, how did he know about that?).

The poisoned, ex-KGB agent lost his fight for life.

My grandchildren did art work on the computer, learning how to use the tools and colors.

The guys watched college football. The kids watched a cartoon movie.

We learned more about the torture orders coming down from the Bush administration. It's easy to see why this administration wanted laws passed to exempt themselves from any United States legal responsibility.

We drank some good wine and talked of how the children are doing because you can't let your view of the world become such that you don't recognize the good things in it.

Still, how can you not compare your own world of peace with knowing what it's like elsewhere? And yet, these precious little ones need to have as normal a world as possible in which to grow up. They are owed, as much as we can give it to them, a place of love and where the values we all believe in can be shown through our own lives.

To top off my mix of emotions, I was saddened to learn a classmate of mine from high school died last week. He was duck hunting in a bay down along the coast and evidently was knocked from his skiff in bad weather conditions. From what I read, it seems hypothermia killed him. I had not seen him since high school graduation but knew about the life he had led to a limited degree-- married his high school sweetheart, had six children together, a devout, religious man and great outdoorsmen, a loss to his family and to all those his life touched.

How quickly life can change for any of us. I thought about what I might have been doing, possibly advance preparations for the holiday dinner, maybe even his wife doing the same thing, while he was struggling to survive and lost the battle. Sometimes life just seems so unreal. How can such normal things go on when other tragic things are happening at the same time? How can it not?

Well the whole holiday was just a mix of that kind of thinking. I want my grandchildren to grow up and live out a normal life span. I know people in Iraq, in the Sudan, in Indonesia, everywhere, they all want the same basic, simple things. It's worrisome and yet we have to live with the joy we can have. We must all savor our good moments because the moment is truly all we have, and whoever really knows what is coming.

(Artwork by my grandchildren. Leftover pies symbols for a dinner consumed happily even if belatedly. Snow compliments of nature.)