Doings

I know I'm way overdue to post some more Theology of the Body, but a report on Thanksgiving seems a bit more time-sensitive.

In a way, it was the end of an era: the first Thanksgiving since I was born when Thanksgiving dinner did not take place in Naturgesetz family property (grandparent's, parent's, uncle's, family vacation home, or my own). I might have missed one or two when I was in grad school or the monastery, but they've always taken place. This year, however, some friendly acquaintances invited my brother and me to join them and three (it turned out) others at their home, and we accepted.

Since we would also be attending an open house on Saturday evening and my brother would go back to Boston this morning (Monday), I decided it would be pointless to roast even the smallest turkey I could find. We would get at most two meals from it, and then I'd be left with a ton of leftovers. So we had baked stuffed haddock on Friday and broiled flank steak on Sunday. The only special cooking I did for the holiday was a frozen mince pie from the store. It's my brother's favorite kind, and he had it with cheddar cheese for desserts and breakfasts, and finished it off last night. I had a small slice for breakfast on Friday morning. I also had bought a frozen pumpkin pie for myself, but when the time came, I decided that with two main meals away from the house, I couldn't handle it right now, so it will stay in the freezer until Christmas.

Thanksgiving itself was very pleasant. The hosts are a man, originally from Texas and wife, originally from here, who are about my age. One guest was a Baptist missionary from Texas, now living in Ohio — about our age. Another was a thirtysomething man from Argentina, and the last was another thritysomething from around here. We talked mostly about languages (apparently Spanish favors long sentences like those from Melville I heard at Moby Dick a couple of weeks ago), but also about music, the lady's missionary work in Romania, and various other things. The meal was fairly traditional for New England, except for the green beans, the addition of pineapple to the sweet potato, and the pecan pie. It was, however, the first time I ever had meat stuffing in a turkey. It was ground beef and pork, with bread to keep it from getting hard, and sausage type spices. It was nearly black and very enjoyable. I had brought two bottles of red wine and two of white, and they were emptied or very nearly so. The pies were accompanied with vanilla ice cream.

Between the main course and dessert we were required by the hosts to take a walk. Fortunately it was warm enough that with coats we were comfortable walking around for the better part of an hour in the late afternoon. After dessert, the host and I stepped outside again to enjoy a cigar. He smokes maybe a half dozen or so per year, and I have one or two.

You can go to my music blog the learn about my afternoon at the symphony on Friday.

So, all in all, it was a good holiday and a good weekend.