Last Minute Thanksgiving

Just sitting down post-Thanksgiving dinner.  My wonderful mate is washing the last batch of pans and knives and I'm watching the final credits for "Love Actually" roll off the TV screen.  The yellow cat Jethro is crashed on the sofa next to me.  Aaaaahhhh.  It's been a good day.

We kicked the day off with a chilly (25 degF) 10k foot race; both my husband and I set PRs for the distance. *GRIN* Pleasant surprise, rewarded by a little Cracker Barrel breakfast.  No, really, it was little - they now have a breakfast menu of dishes under 500 calories.  YAY!

I didn't plan to cook a Thanksgiving meal. I bought a turkey this week due to my employer giving us each a $15 coupon toward said turkey. I figured I'd cook it Sunday and freeze most. That grocery trip also served to restock some pantry items, but none of the 'fixins' others loaded into their buggies...

As fate would have it, we didn't really want another restaurant meal today and had no alternate plans.  Around noon, I wandered into the kitchen to see if we had options better than eggs over toast (I knew we had four slices of bread left!)

A little digging around, four cookbooks, a few internet searches, and a few more thoughtful substitutions and compromises, a menu sprang to life. And into our bellies!

Long story short, the pantry, refrigerator and freezer, despite appearing spartan, yielded all the goods for a wonderful meal: Turkey (brined 4 hours, spatchcocked and roasted in less than 2 hours), giblet gravy, herbed bread stuffing, baked sweet potatoes, sauteed kale with sweet onion & garlic, whole wheat potato rolls, Trader Joe's potatoes & mushrooms with haricots verts, and pumpkin pie with a homemade whole wheat pie crust.  Nom nom nom.  Two satiated smiles!

Why didn't we photograph that lovely food porn?!

Needless to say, gonna need a restock.  I managed to use up all of the remaining white flour, the last lone stick of butter, olive oil, celery, bread, stock, and orange juice, to name a few things.

I guess the moral of the story is that we are usually more blessed than we might keep in our present thought.  I figured another trip to the grocery was necessary, but once I got to looking, I realized we had everything we needed.  Compromise was essential to make it work, and it took some ingenuity to pull it off (umm, there's mango juice in the pie crust).

I initially failed to appreciate the abundance already at my disposal.  Luckily, no one eating here had unyielding expectations of what the holiday meal should be!

The rest of our lives can similarly lack joy and meaning if we don't appreciate that which we already have.  Our culture advertises limitless conveniences to purchase the "full" feeling, but it never seems to deliver.

My thanksgiving delivered today, and I am truly thankful for the abundance shared in our home.  I won't be searching for happiness at a Black Friday sale tomorrow; good chance I'll find that joy amongst the people [and things] already present in my life.

This doesn't mean I won't seek new experiences and new relationships.  Rather, I will know that those new things are meant to enhance that which I already - thankfully - have available.

May you be similarly blessed!  Happy Thanksgiving!