Thanksgiving 2011
Written by Drusilla on November 29th, 2011
Thanksgiving was great! Hope yours was too.
For many years I cooked for the crowd but a few years ago my sister and I switched so now we all go to her house for the yearly November feast. Last year we had ham but this year she went traditional with turkey and all the trimmings which in this case meant Rocky brought carrots he’d done something orangey with and Nikki made the salad. It’s not traditional to have salad at Thanksgiving but in our family we’re big on greens.
We toasted our mother who is ninety four and the prettiest woman at the table (you think I’m kidding). And we remembered Aunty Kath who turned ninety-nine the Tuesday before. We raised our glasses in memory of Aunty Molly and all the beloved Brownes in Oz. Isabelle and Grayson joined in. They especially love the part where we clink glasses. When we went around the table to express our thanks, Izzy was thankful for me. Honestly, aren’t grandchildren the greatest?
Afterwards, with the little ones gone, we nibbled on pie, drank coffee and more wine and brought out the conversation cards. You know what these are. A clear plastic cube of a hundred or so cards printed with statements bound to get people talking. One of these was “Which would you rather be: a world class athlete, artist, scientist, politician or musician?”
At our table of adults ages twenty to ninety-four, there were only three answers. I was in the minority, wanting to be an athlete and confessed to a fantasy of myself loping across the finish line at the Olympics. The second favorite choice was musician. Better than half wanted to be scientists of some sort.
What field of science is it that studies odds? I thought how unlikely it all was that we Brownes and Greens, and Campbells, Germans, Irish, Italians and Native American, connected by blood and good fortune, should be sitting around a table together on a Thursday late afternoon, half-sloshed on champagne, affection and gratitude.
Filed under Family & Friends | Tags: Drusilla Campbell, Thanksgiving
Dear Dru,
How lovely Thanksgiving sounds – a little like our Aussie Christmas! The food looks great and superbly presented. I am also impressed with the conversation cards – I like those sorts of things that make you think a bit about life.
Thank you for sending A.Kath the beautiful flowers for her 99th. She was delighted with the bouquet and I have sent photos of it to Rocky, who will probably show you all at the next family occasion.
How hard it is to comprehend A.Molly’s death, although it seems that they had a good party the day before, with all the girls and their husbands and children in attendance. I’ve been sick at heart for weeks, not knowing how to properly farewell my beloved aunt. Guess I will take A.Kath up to Wangaratta on 7 January.
Your grandchildren are delightful!
I’ll be in touch with you soon.
Janet xx
Sounds nice. The most “talking” I could get my family to participate in this year was MadLibs, which was fun, but not too deep. Thanks for sharing your holiday event.