Saturday, November 8, 2014

Turkey Is Not Mandatory

For most of the years we lived in Chicago, we were by ourselves for Thanksgiving. We had no relatives nearby, we couldn't afford to travel to grandparents on either side, and folks just didn't seem to think about including us in family gatherings. A few times family from out of town happened to be with us for the holiday, but usually we were alone. I would gather all the necessary fixings and wrestle with the turkey and ultimately produce a bang-up meal, to everyone's satisfaction. But there is nothing more over than a Thanksgiving dinner with just five people, especially when three of those five people are small children. We would wallow in leftovers and hang out and enjoy the days off, of course, but some years the turkey fiesta seemed like much more work than we wanted. (And there was always the yearly debate about what to do with the turkey carcass!)

This leads to my confession: we didn't always eat turkey and all the trimmings. We ordered Carson's ribs once or twice, and Lou Malnati's pizza also appeared occasionally. I am trying to remember what other substitutes we might have consumed. I'm sure there were a couple of additional breaks from tradition. And we had perfectly satisfactory Thanksgiving meals!! In fact, we probably enjoyed those 'rogue' Thanksgivings a little more because we broke the pattern. I recall some friends being shocked to hear that we had ribs instead of turkey. But honestly, if we still lived in Chicago, I would be sorely tempted to offer ribs from the Gale Street Inn for Thanksgiving!

It's all about the table fellowship anyway, isn't it? We have lovely memories of those very private Thanksgiving meals.

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