Stress-free Thanksgiving

John, Gene, Mel, me

In past years, Lily would have been with us as we searched for a decent cup of coffee on Thanksgiving Day, when our usual place is closed for the holiday. (She's in Guatemala at the moment.) In fact, almost every venue I tried in order to find coffee decided to give their employees a day off. Not Safeway, however, which has a Starbucks on site, so there we headed. I've found that I can usually get fairly decent coffee if I order an Americano (a simple shot or two of espresso) with added water. And for me, a little cream.

Melanie brought some pumpkin brownies she made yesterday and we enjoyed them, with enough for me to take one home and eat it later. Mel thought they tasted bitter, so she bought the whipped cream but nobody used it, or even felt it was needed. I found it delicious. After watching the rain come down in sheets from the window, we headed home and decided against trying to get in any sort of hike today. And now, as I sit here writing this post, the wind has come up to drive the heavy rain horizontal. No, unless it changes a lot, I'll not be getting my usual exercise today.

Our Thanksgiving Day feast

I also decided to make our holiday as stress-free as possible, with no cooking and no cleanup. I pre-ordered our dinner from the local Community Food Co-op and will "nosh" on it all day long: thick slices of turkey, green beans almondine, maple glazed delicata squash, stuffing, "smashed" potatoes (lightly mashed with skins on and a little bit of seasoning), chicken gravy, and cranberry sauce. I had a serving of everything, a little bit, and will help myself to more once I feel the urge. It makes way more sense to me to eat small servings all day long than one heavy meal all at once. And everything is really tasty!

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be much better, so I'll walk to the bus in the morning and then probably head over to the Y for a nice workout. With all this rain on top of the huge amount we had last week, I do hope we can keep from having any more flooding. I am so grateful for an easy and satisfying Thanksgiving, with a warm and dry place to live, friends and family all doing well, and nothing to do except enjoy my day of rest and relaxation. Now that this post is done, I can sit back and decide what I want to do with the rest of the day. Happy day to one and all!

:-)