chestnuts and leather animals

Wednesday, nov. 22, 2006   |   0 comments

Tomorrow I’m cooking my very first thanksgiving dinner, and all four of my parents are coming over. I’m pretty excit-o-nervous about the whole thing, as I’m not exactly the best cook that ever was? So not only am I worried about everything tasting like food, but the timing of all the different elements is sort of boggling my inexperienced brain. I sat down and typed up a schedule today (“3pm: turkey out, stuffing in, potatoes on”), but I don’t have much faith that it’s actually going to help matters much. No matter how much advanced scheming I do, whenever I cook there always seems to be that one straggling dish that comes limping down the final stretch a full hour after all the others, greeted by an anemic patter of “good for you“ applause from the three people still left in the stadium.

But I’m still going to try to get everything across that finish line at more or less the same time, just like the plucky runners in Mr. Rogers’ eye-wringing commencement speech:

Have you heard my favorite story that came from the Seattle Special Olympics? Well, for the 100-yard dash there were nine contestants, all of them so-called physically or mentally disabled. All nine of them assembled at the starting line and at the sound of the gun, they took off. But not long afterward one little boy stumbled and fell and hurt his knee and began to cry. The other eight children heard him crying; they slowed down, turned around and ran back to him. Every one of them ran back to him. One little girl with Down Syndrome bent down and kissed the boy and said, “This’ll make it better.” And the little boy got up and he the rest of the runners linked their arms together and joyfully walked to the finish line. They all finished the race at the same time. And when they did, everyone in that stadium stood up and clapped and whistled and cheered for a long, long, time. People who were there are still telling the story with great delight. And you know why. Because deep down, we know that what matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win too. Even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then.

So tonight is all about prep work: I’ve peeled up some chestnuts and chunked and dried up some bread for the chestnut and apple stuffing. For his part, Marco has shampooed the rugs, scrubbed the toilet and the counters and the blinds (!), and I think I may have even spotted him on his hands and kness in the bathroom, hand-mopping the floor with a sponge?

And then starting at 7am tomorrow, Marco’s going surfing and I’m tackling the pumpkin pie, then turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and brussel sprouts! And wine of course. Chugs and chugs of wine.

Until then, I leave you with this, a menagerie of the cutest 24-dollar leather animal keychains ever assembled:

Penguin, elephant, and fishie, all available at the Republic of Banana.