Thanksgiving is a time to appreciate all that we have, which in practice means we gather to cook together, remember how much we enjoy and love each other, and then eat together (going around that cycle several times in the course of the afternoon and evening). Amy, Sarah, Rebecca and I spent Thursday at Amy's parents' Thanksgiving and Friday at my brother Eric's Thanksgiving. We may finish working off the calories by February, and I think the joy will last even longer.
The setting of the table evokes our longstanding family traditions. At Eric's house (above), the fruit plate echoes the Hochheimer grandparent's in Norwalk, Connecticut (there always was a persimmon on the plate along with the figs, dates, grapes, pears, ...). At Amy's parents, we debated whether the paper turkeys with our names written on them included any originals from Amy's and her sister's childhood.
Good food appeared, provenance of all sorts. Where did these amazing olives come from? Eric made the fiery garlic string beans for his celebration.
Benigno made the brussels sprouts at the top for the Eppler event -- he grilled them on the Weber grill outside. Beni is also the recognized turkey-chef for the Eppler Thanksgiving, and cousin Daniel is always the turkey carver.
My brother David and I have carried on our mother's tradition of bringing sticky buns. This year, someone asked, "How did sticky buns become part of the Hochheimer Thanksgiving meal?" Aunt Ruth, Mom's sister, said that she had no early memory of sticky buns at Thanksgiving. Since the recipe we use has always been the one from the Woodbine Cottage in Sunapee, New Hampshire, we worked out that Mom must have started bringing the sticky buns in the late 1960's or early 1970's, when we were going to the Woodbine quite often during the summer and consuming as many sticky buns as they would serve us.
Thanksgiving isn't just people time; it's also puppy time (here cousin Ray with an Irish Setter named Lucy).
There was a Lucy at my brother's house as well -- below is one is one of my cousin Beth's pre-teen girls, who are both growing up so fast!
There is a long tradition in both households of bringing as many others as you can. We played Password with Rebecca's boyfriend Philip and their friend Ben.
Benigno brought his lovely mother, who lives in Miami (and is my best dominos partner).
Sarah grabbed my camera to take pictures for awhile - here is my brother David
and she also took a picture of me!
The Eppler Thanksgiving group took the traditional pre-dessert walk to the Croton Reservoir dam
and both celebrations featured an inordinate number of creative and amazing desserts.
Some people set their year's goals around New Year celebrations. But my big goal for the year is to master the art of the pie crust in time for Thanksgiving 2012!
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