Thanksgiving

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful time yesterday. I hope you were with your pals and loved ones and that whatever you ate was just what your body and soul needed.
Here at the Gormans, I didn't plan much. Chepa's boyfriend came into town, so she and her babies and he were headed over to one of the sister's homes. Italo's wife Sara has been a little sour on my lately and was headed over to Chepa's sister as well, and I figured she'd take Italo and their baby. And Marco is a wild card. He might show or not.
I did not feel badly. It's just life and making demands on a day when everybody is under stress doesn't do any one any good. Neither does force feeding people their third or fourth meal just to say they came over.
Still, I bought a small turkey--about 15 pounds, made mashed potatoes and gravy, cooked some nice organic baby carrots and peas, and made a nice stuffing. Plus good cranberry sauce with whole cranberries.
Madeleina joked that the turkey was for Boots and the rest of the food for the raccoon who gets into our garbage. I laughed with her and said they both deserved treats, so what the heck.
And then at about 3, just as the Cowboy's football game was starting and the food was nearly done, Italo surprised me and came over. "Where else would I be? I want to watch the game with you, dad," he said.
And he and Madeleina put the big table in the living room and set it in front of the television. He turned the game on. In all these years in Texas that table has never been there before, so it was a nice treat.
And then Marco showed up. That was surprising because he and Italo had a fight a couple of weeks ago and have not been talking. They didn't talk yesterday, not much anyway, but they got along well enough.
And so there it was: Just me and my kids. And that was the greatest Thanksgiving in a long time.