Happy Thanksgiving Canadians!

2008 (but it might as well of been 2019!) All events happened in the present save mom being here - she's here in spirit I did talk to her midday!


We had our thanksgiving dinner yesterday night and I'm up early because no matter what, Wild Thing does not sleep in, and he really likes company in the morning, even if I'm otherwise occupied. I wish we had coffee. *YAWN*

It was Me, Papa Pan, Sprout, Wild Thing, Darkmirror, Nature Chick, her friend Rock, his older brother Hound, their mom Maddie, and two nomads that Maddie could vouch for through THE EXCHANGE - Heaven and her 7 yr old son Sent, and my mom.

While I worked in the kitchen Nature Chick, Rock, Wild Thing and Sprout hung out outside playing in an impromptu jug band up on top of the old playhouse (it's made of recycled pallets and they attached a stage at some point this summer. Nature Girl insisted on everyone being in costume so they were all wearing funny hats and rubber boots too. Rock really likes a big fancy garden party hat that my mom used to wear. I've noticed he wears it a lot when he's here!

While listening to their "music" I did what I've always done on thanksgiving, poured my thanks for each person at the table into the food.

One carrot for each of them, one potato for each of them, on second thought an extra potato for each teen boy. Carefully peeled, carefully sliced. The peelings go into the big soup pot.

A 10 lb turkey will feed us all with lovely leftovers for soup and sandwiches. (We couldn't afford any pork, clearly we need to raise one a year if we want to eat local organic!) One precious jar of cranberry sauce (so expensive I choked - 7.00 I'm not kidding!). A bowl of walnuts and dried cranberries.

One pumpkin pie and the most special treat of all (especially from Nature Chick's perspective) REAL whipping cream.

As usual Papa Pan fretted over whether or not there was enough food and I promised there was more than enough. One of the things I'm most thankful for is that we live in an agricultural community. We argued over the gravy too. He wanted me to do it his mother's way which involves rendering all the fat and skimming it all off then making the gravy from the rest of the drippings. I felt that was too much work and planned on just using whatever drippings there were, adding the veggie cooking water as broth and a shot of vinegar. I made dinner so I won. So there.

I set two tables, the "kids" sat cross legged around our coffee table - which is a pine kitchen table with its legs cut short (lots of elbow room). While we ate at the "big table" which funnily enough used to be a short table. Papa Pan bolted tall legs on it. I served the boys to make sure there would be enough for everyone. Rock could eat us out of house and home if I let him. Sent was timid about saying he wanted anything, and Heaven said he was like that a lot around new people. So I introduced him to Dark Mirror who had already arranged to eat dinner in his room because there were too many new people in the house. The two of them hit it off quite well and little Sent ended up eating with him.

Sprout gobbled up everything put before him and eyed everyone else's plates. Must be a growth spurt. Nature Chick talked so much she had hardly eaten anything by the time we started clearing the dishes and hurriedly shovelled her mashed potatoes in as she carried the plate into the kitchen to be washed.

We had the pie and both Nature Chick and Sent were so desperate for the cream they offered to not have pie in exchange for more of the whipped cream. I took pity on them and let them have both.

I'm not sure what the kids were talking about. I do know Nature Chick was giggling madly and that might have been because she was the only girl at a table full of cute boys, but I don't know.

At our table the conversation meandered all over the place:

The problems with the school system, the differences between here and in Maine. In the US they've gone crazy over standardization apparently and there is now only one correct way to draw a letter K LOL! Control where you can I guess!

The difficulties Heaven and Sent had crossing the border and how there'd been a screaming match and threats of tasering the last time she crossed because she and Sent have different citizenships, hers is American, his is Canadian, and she's always been a single mother - no listed father to get permission to travel from. Even though it was by chance he was born in Canada, she can't get him US citizenship. The border authorities thought that was suspicious and were sure she was trying to kidnap him.

Maddie told me a bunch of stuff about genetics and Asperger's that went right over my head.

We even talked religion, our being Baha'i, Maddie's agnosticism, Heaven's Pagan/Buddhist/Quaker for community's sake. The Quaker pacifism has always resonated with me and I have adopted their "open door policy". We do not lock our home.

We talked about Heaven and Sent's lifestyle. She was relaxed about their nomadic lifestyle but admitted that she really wanted "to find a hole to fall in where they fit and could stay for awhile" Papa Pan immediately invited them to stay with us. I love that about him. Heaven is a biologist by training and a naturopathic healer by choice and she has her own health concerns that make settling anywhere difficult. She has chronic bronchitis and has to avoid getting ill with upper respiratory illnesses naturally. She spends part of the year working in central america, avoids heavily populated centres, and being indoors in winter.

We talked about my herniated disc (she has one too, and osteoporosis) and she gave me some exercises to do. She gave me a book "Healing Your Own Back" and a postal address to send it to her when I was done with it. When we walked out to get it I got a chance to see their "home" - a tiny car with bikes on the back (how they usually travel) and the backseat absolutely crammed with everything they own. You can tell a person's priorities when they live this way - a cell phone, an email address, a lot of warm blankets and books.

Maddie had to run, she had work to do and Hound did too. Rock begged to stay the night. I said sure. He's in Nature Chick's bed - she is in the upper bunk in Wild Thing's room.

Heaven did some work on Papa Pan's neck as he has an ear infection.

Then hugs goodbye, and they were off to Cape Breton.

Our door is always open.