Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving Success



I hosted my family at my apartment in the City this year for the Thanksgiving festivities. This was the second time I've hosted in the 4 years I've lived in this place in Rogers Park. There were only 4 of us, so the fact that I do not have a dining room worked out fine. We just pulled the kitchen table out into the middle of the living room and everyone was happy! Dad could watch football while we ate, on mute, and I played a Frank Sinatra Christmas record that I got a few years ago. It was lovely. We all missed my youngest sister, who is in school in Marquette, Michigan, and opted to stay up north given the fact that she'll be home for Christmas in a month.

My Thanksgiving menu included the standard holiday dishes: green bean casserole, two types of sweet potato bakes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, herbed red potatoes, and rolls. We deep-fried our turkey in the alley behind my building (keeping an eye out to make sure that no junk-pickers would steal this obviously precious metal pot and roaster!). My mom brought a delicious cheesecake, and my sister made fantastic apple crisp. We took a walk between the meal and dessert in order to allow everything to settle. We even ate our meal off of my grandmother's fancy china. She passed away a few years ago, so it was an extra bit of meaning for us all.

All in all it was a fantastic day, and I hope everyone else had a similar time. We even got to enjoy some gross nursing stories from my sister at the dinner table...always a staple! If you are reading this, Adrian, I really didn't mind that much except for the one part: you know which one I mean :)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone reading!

3 comments:

Emily said...

It sounds like you had the perfect day. The fact that we can be outside at the end of November and be comfortable is always a wonderful thing.

amyv said...

Nice! Good work hosting the family and great blog! Frank and I accomplished a similar feat but with only ourselves around to be impressed, which was actually very relaxing. Thanksgiving is TOTALLY the best holiday, bar none!

Red from Ktown said...

Wow, you're brave. I am 37 and have never hosted a huge family dinner (mainly because I don't cook much and we'd probably all get food poisoning from my bird.) Sounds like a nice day.