TheBanyanTree: Post Thanksgiving

[Jeri Xiques]

Unbelievable, Theta!!  I think I would have been on the phone ordering
Pizza around 4:30!

Jeri


On Sat, Nov 28, 2015 at 11:18 AM, Jena Norton <eudora45 at sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

> Well, I think Elise is a closet Colver.
> Glad it went well, all things considered. Jena Norton
>
>       From: Theta Brentnall <tybrent at gmail.com>
>  To: A comfortable place to meet other people and exchange your own
> *original* writings. <thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com>
>  Sent: Saturday, November 28, 2015 8:59 AM
>  Subject: Re: TheBanyanTree: Post Thanksgiving
>
> I will say conclusively that you won the awesome Thanksgiving contest.
> Ours was a little iffy from the beginning. Gerry's niece, Elise, has a new
> (to her) house so she wanted to host the family Thanksgiving dinner. We
> were to arrive at 3, which kind of made us think dinner at 4-ish so we
> skimped on lunch. We got there early because we had anticipated horrible
> traffic which didn't materialize. (Oh, yes, "we" consisted of Gerry and me,
> our oldest, Darling Maggie, her Darling Shane and the two grandest of
> grandchildren, Indiana and Micah.  Just so you know the players.) Elise's
> boyfriend was there, but no Elise. Two raw turkeys on the counter. A big
> pan of raw potatoes waiting for heat. A green bean casserole sitting on the
> table which Mike said had been dropped off in the morning and apparently
> had been sitting there unrefrigerated for some hours. I whispered to Indy
> and Micah, "Don't eat any of that at dinner."  They whispered back, "No
> worries. Wouldn't touch it!"
>
> We asked where Elise was when she didn't appear and Mike said she was
> getting ready. After 20 minutes or so, Maggie and I dug out some carrots
> and bell peppers to cut up and Mike found some guacamole and humus dips, so
> we put out some snackings. A few more guests showed up. No Elise. Turkeys
> still raw. Maggie put the potatoes on to boil.
>
> About a quarter to 4, Shane decided to put one of the turkeys on the grill
> and some of the other guests started getting the oil hot to fry the other
> turkey.
>
> Four o'clock, Elise appears.  She is beautifully dressed and coiffed, but
> expressed dismay that the guests were doing the cooking.
>
> Four-thirty, Gerry's brother and his wife showed up with the pies. There
> were 20 people there. They brought 10 pies. I thought there were only 8 but
> 2 were duplicates so they didn't get put out.
>
> Five-thirty. The turkeys were done. Two of the other guests had mashed the
> potatoes and we started putting things on the serving table when Elise blew
> in and said no, no, no, it's too early.
>
> Six o'clock.  Maggie encourages Elise to get the the food on the table so
> we could eat. Her actual words were, "Oh my God!  Put the food out!  Do you
> WANT to watch my kids have melt-down?"  She could have added me to the list
> - I was pretty well on my way to melt-down myself.
>
> The new house is seriously tiny, so Elise had rented a tent with patio
> heaters for the dinner. The day never reached 50 degrees, so we were all
> wearing everything we had brought and we're still cold, but the heaters
> worked pretty well. And finally we ate. The food was good. Conversation was
> pleasant. And then one of the other guests leaned back in his chair and
> complemented Elise on getting the tent because since we were outside he
> could enjoy his post-dinner cigar. And proceeded to light up. I wonder if
> he was at all puzzled by the fact that almost everyone else leapt out of
> their chairs and fled back inside.
>
> We snarffed down pie, washed the dishes, said our good-byes and headed
> home with the heater turned all the way up and when we got home we all
> squeezed together in front of the fire until we were toasted all the way
> through.
>
> I hope everyone else had a wonderful day and now we can look forward to
> Christmas.
>
> Theta
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>
>
>