No children were harmed in the making of Thanksgiving dinner, primarily because they stayed out of the kitchen to watch the parade. No children were harmed after they ate Thanksgiving dinner either.



Thank goodness because that would have pretty much ruined Thanksgiving altogether. A trip to the emergency room with a sick and/or injured child can pretty much make any holiday not as much fun.

Thanksgiving dinner turned out exceptionally well; my friend’s 12-lb. turkey was roasted to perfection. The green beans were great; the jolly green giant himself would have definitely been more than slightly impressed with their crisp, fresh taste. The mashed potatoes were creamy and lumpless, which is all anyone could ever ask of mashed potatoes. And the stuffing was definitely most excellent. (I opted for a higher level of difficulty with the stuffing and used a recipe with chicken sausage, which proved to be a most excellent choice.)



The best part of Thanksgiving before we ate when we each said what we were grateful for. The kids started it off; my friend’s son said that he was grateful for his Playstation 3. When we all finished crying at that touching sentiment from an 11-year-old, his mom threatened to punish him for not including her as part of his thanks. Everyone else was mostly grateful for the usual things: friends, family, blah, blah, blah.



 I had a tougher year this year than usual, so didn’t exactly know what to say. It was my first Thanksgiving in 15 years without El Chef by my side, which gave me some things to be grateful for and many things to be sad about. But still, I was happy to be with good friends and good people.



The ghosts of Thanksgiving past didn’t haunt me; they all haven’t been as happy as I remembered, but some were truthfully great. I tried to think about how I could create traditions for Thanksgiving by myself, but couldn’t come up with any easy answers. I don’t know where I’ll be for different Thanksgivings or who I’ll be with or if they’ll let me cook anything or if I’ll just be put on dishwashing duty.



I do know that I’ve been lucky in a lot of things in my life and that a holiday is just a holiday. But I’m still thankful to my friend and her family for letting me share their Thanksgiving.