I cleverly fanigled an invitation for Thanksgiving dinner with Joan. She is my 90-year-old friend and role model for staying sharp and in good shape. Check us out at the gym:
Joan comes from Missouri, Heartland of America, and she prides herself on preparing a down home Midwest Thanksgiving dinner. The real thing. Hey, no objections from me. But really, Joan, is drinking champagne a Midwest custom too? Just kidding. Here's the turkey.
And the turkey carver:
Peter had been watching videos on how to carve a turkey and announced that he was carving it the "New Way": carving the breast after pulling it off the frame (not while it's still on the frame, the way it is usually done). Hurray for Peter, he did a splendid job. Beautiful Nuria rewards him with a kiss.
Sorry, I was not fast enough to catch her actually kissing him.
Joan and Nuria
Once we started eating I forgot all about taking pictures. You know how that goes. Suffice it to say that everything Joan had prepared was superb, from the pumpkin soup to the turkey, cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, and pear cobbler with vanilla ice cream! All of it totally YUM! To round it off, Nuria and Peter prepared a fresh and crispy salad, and even I came up with a vegetable dish of green beans and carrots.
The conversation around the table was so animated that we stayed much longer than expected. Peter had lived in Indonesia and other places in Southeast Asia, and Nuria is from Spain, so we roamed all over the world with our stories. I give thanks to the beauty around us and within, the abundance of food and friendship, and the all-encompassing love that holds us each and every moment.
Sunset from Joan's lanai
Wonderful Thanksgiving, Elsha! I love it! Never had pumpkin soup before! I guess it tasted like pumpkin. But, oh, to be 90 like her and STILL have her brain intact. My mother is 95 and has had dementia since her mid-80s. So sad to see her like that.
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