Thanksgiving tales

Thanksgiving. 5 days of holiday shared with loved ones, not tainted by religion, and all centred around feasting. My kind of festival. We were invited north by our "Michigan family", Ken and Linda of a sumptuous upstate bed and breakfast in a Queen Anne mansion. We knew we were in for a treat - Linda's a marvelous cook and the house is all luxury and crackling fires. Made all the more special with unseasonal snowfalls, making us feel like we had wandered into a Christmas card, sitting in a cozy parlour watching snowflakes drift downwards through the window panes, with a smiling snowman beneath a snow-laden spruce in the garden. I think we managed to connect to the traditions and intentions behind Thanksgiving. We certainly managed to consume the ample bounties of the Thanksgiving table!

My favourite tastes of Thanksgiving:
- mulled wine and warm cider, preferably spiked with spiced rum (as served by Gail and Vindu at their Wallace House dinner last Tuesday, kicking off the holiday)
- Linda's sugary, whipped sweet potatoes with the crunch of pecans
- turkey, and the stuffing. especially the stuffing.
- apple crisps and crumbles
- treacly, homemade pecan pie
- coffee with whipped cream after a walk in the snow
- chipotle macaroni and cheese
- champagne with a drop of brandy and sprinkles of nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, cloves and ginger

Gerard must be praised for his heroic drive some 230 miles north through deep and slippery snow, much of it along narrow county roads which hadn't been seasoned by a salt truck or cleared with a snowplow. Our first heavy snow was both exciting and alarming, but it's all gone now but for a few stubborn banks of ice, and lots of wet mud. For a laugh, you can always check Ann Arbor for snow from sunny Sydney.