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Another common thread I heard from people is how challenging this year has been. Isn't that a wonderful combination? It's the hardest year a lot of people have experienced in a long, long time, possibly in their LIVES, and yet they have the best Thanksgiving ever. There is definitely a spiritual connection going on there. It's like a Universal Theme that is running through people. That in and of itself makes me tear up. I've spent so much of my life feeling different from others that when "samedness" is undeniable, regardless of where we are in our lives and how we connect to Spirit and what color our skin is and where we call home, it always chokes me up.
When I walked into my house, I almost stepped back outside to check the address and make sure I was in the right house. Zoe was FREAKING OUT because I hadn't been there when she and Cait emerged from their room. (She has some serious abandonment issues that while they have rarely manifested, are definitely there) I told her what I'd been doing and peeled the sticky note I'd left for her off of the fridge and stuck it to her forehead. She pulled it off her noggin, looked really sheepish and said, "I'm sorry," making her mouth really small when she said it.
Hmmm. That might be bad. I crawled back into my bed and put on my headphones and let some Pink Floyd seep into my bones and woke up about an hour later. Zoe, of course, acted as though nothing had happened, so I took her up on that offer. She was using Mom's old cookbook and making pies. It was really nice by then, so I got a cup of herb tea and took it out on the patio, bringing Cait out with me in her jumpy chair. We killed off time until we had to head on over to Maxine and Kurt's place.
Along about 5 or so, Zoe and Maxine had put the finishing touches on their masterpiece and called us to the table. It was glorious with the pretty linen table cloth, the perfectly matched placemats and linen napkins, the candles, nice china and the whole event. Kurt asked me if I would sit at the head of the table since it was my first Thanksgiving spent with people to whom I was not related. Weird huh?
She said the entree platter was pretty heavy,
so I offered to go get it for her, but Kurt beat me to it. Out he came
with this huge, covered silver tray of deliciousness that he sat right in
front of me. He handed me the carving tools, saying he'd never passed
them off to anyone before and I thought I was going to bawl like a baby
right there on the spot (well, a not Cait baby who actually does cry). I
was already feeling pretty emotional over the whole day and how it felt,
so that about put me over the edge. I popped open that top, ready for the wave of tasty cooked bird smell to hit me and instead, there was that fucking head... I mean THE HEAD, staring up at me, lying nestled in a bed of kale, a tiny little crab apple shoved into its gaping maw, eyes wide with that "Dude, please don't cut me up (again)" look. Of course, I screamed like the girly man I am and the whole table erupted in laughter... at me, not with me. It had to be the baby. I'm blaming it all on Miss Cait for enchanting me and giving me new things to think about and totally distracting me off my game. No way would I have fallen for this 6 months ago. But then, this whole "hide in plain sight" thing Kurt employed is such bullshit. It's WAY too obvious to use a holiday, actually ON the day, to give the Head. That's the actual art form of it. You give the Head when the person least expects it and normally, I would have been scanning for clues all morning, except that this time, a pretty girl turned my head and I was momentarily distracted.
Afterward, Kurt and I washed up the dishes
while the ladies watched some ridiculous movie about a Cider House or
something, then we took over the TV again to continue our moviethon. Kurt,
The Head and I wound up the day by getting a little tipsy and singing the
Pirates of the Carribean song over and over until we got shown the door by
the ladies, who stayed up late playing Yahtzee. I fell into my bed and
Kurt landed on Zoe's. I don't know when the transition occurred, but when
I got up the next morning to watch Cait when Zoe left for work, Kurt was
not around and Zoe was. I got Caitie girl fed and Sagey-guy fed and
then we went over and woke up Kurt for more movie-related madness and tons
of yummy leftovers through the day. Aside and apart from the whole near-pants-shitting episode, the day was nearly perfect.
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It was a WONDERFUL
Thanksgiving. I am surprised by the number of people who have emailed me
saying that this year was their best Thanksgiving ever because it was mine
as well. Even with all of the times we had family everywhere and Mom and
the girls cooking in the kitchen and watching parades in the living room,
I have to say that it never took on the tear-evoking warmth of this
particular Thanksgiving. 
I got a
frantic call from Maxine around 9am, saying she needed some pine nuts.
Pine nuts? No, I didn't happen to have any just hanging around as I am
not too much of a pine nuts cook, but I shucked on my sweats, my rasta hat
(which does have braids attached, thank you oh so very much and my fuzzy
(inside) moccasins and fired up the Impala in search of pine nuts for
Maxine. The first store I hit was closed, but the second one was open,
just not stocked up on pine nuts. I remembered that there was a health
food store in the next town over (about 20 minutes away), so I shagged on
over there and sure enough, they were open AND had pine nuts aplenty! She
didn't say how much she needed, so I grabbed a few packages, got some of
the "No Pudge" brownie mix that I know Zoe likes (even though she doesn't
really have a pudge to start with) and motored on back to Max's to drop
off the nuts, making all kinds of "I know you want my nuts, baby" jokes
and then tipped on back home to crawl back between the covers and get my
snooze on. 
I gave her a hug
and told her that I look forward to the time when she figures out that I'm
going to be there for her. I asked her if she'd ever seen "The Goodbye
Girl" and she said she had and I asked her if she remembered the scene
where Richard Dreyfuss is going away and Marcia Mason realizes that he
left his guitar and comes out clutching it and that assures her he's
coming back? She said she did and I said, "Well, my house is my guitar.
If I ever leave and take my house with me, you'll know I'm not coming
back." I guess it was funnier in my head or she didn't get the joke or
something, because she just kind of made a face and stuck out her tongue
at me and went back in her room. 
Maxine is one of
these people who goes all out for holidays, so there were Martha Stewart
decorations everywhere and potpourri simmering (not that she needed any
because dinner was smelling up the house just absolutely fine). Zoe
disappeared into the kitchen with Max while Kurt and I dug into the stack
of DVDs we'd been saving for the occasion. Both of us maxed out our
Netflix in direct conference with one another so we would be stocked up.
We watched "Footloose" (and he swears he isn't gay, liar), "King Arthur"
(which I had seen and he had not), "Short Cuts" (in honor of Robert
Altman, God rest his soul), "The Skeleton Key," "Thank You For Smoking"
and "The Wizard of Oz." Some, we had to bleed over into the next day. 
I
thought it was really sweet, so I thanked him and planted my taut, shapely
ass in the chair while Zoe and Maxine started bringing out the covered
silver dishes. Every time they would pop the rounded dome off of a dish,
the smell would be intoxicating. I guess smell would build up inside
there and just explode out when they would pull off the top. There was
garlic-cheese mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, warm, homemade
bread, homemade cranberry sauce, broccoli with cheese sauce... it was just
marvelous. I felt like a king with all of this laid out in front of us
and Maxine was obviously pleased that Kurt and I were so responsive. Sooooo
goood... (As it turned out, the pine nuts were for some kind of
pine-nut, wild rice stuffing thing that was really, really tasty, as were
Zoe's pies.)
The
truth of it is that Miss Cait was the ONLY one who didn't laugh at me. In
fact, the explosion of laughter (and my scream) kind of scared her and she
startled and teared up a little bit. Maxine picked her up and got her
soothed right away. I shoved my heart back down into my chest where it
belonged and told Kurt he was a son-of-a-bitch. In the interest of family
unity and the absolute blessedness of the day, I got over my snit quickly
and Kurt brought out the finest, God Bless Us Every One turkey, followed
by another platter of Roast Beast and it was all just delectable. We ate
like royalty and Kurt and I gave mad props to the amazing chefs who
provided us with such an amazing buffet of joy.
All
in all, it was a lovely day and even I can see the humor in the most
recent Head transaction, although at the time, it wasn't all that funny to
me.
I hope yours was
wonderful as well.