Today is Black Friday but you can’t tell round here. We all slept in; no one has any shopping plans, not even online. Ilsa has a friend over and they made hot chocolate from scratch and it boiled all over the stove, so the house smells warm and burnt-chocolately, which isn’t as bad as it sounds. We get the paper on holidays and weekends and yesterday’s was ENORMOUS, less than half news and commentary and comics and sports, most of it full-colour glossy ads screaming about great deals. At first it was tempting—I need a winter coat and I’m eyeing one at Macy’s, watching the price drop lower and lower and hoping they don’t run out of my size—but I was soon overwhelmed. I put most in the recycling without even glancing at it. What you don’t know exists, you don’t know you need.
People decry, rightfully, American consumerism. But I think it’s deeper than that. I think people are the same the world over. So in our culture, it shows itself in people willing to sleep outside in freezing temps and trample each other in their rush to get to the best deal. But in other cultures, it shows itself in other ways—in the ways prices double in the ancient medinas of Morocco or Mauritania right before a feast day, when culture pretty much obligates everyone to buy gifts for loved ones; in the ways that foreigners need to take extra precautions to avoid being robbed to subsidize this gift-giving. In Nouakchott, even those who lived in the poorest of tents and shacks, without a dream of running water or electricity, would nonetheless have TV powered off car batteries, and satellite disks propped outside, surrounded by goats.
We had a quiet day yesterday. In the morning, I made a pumpkin pie and the mince and coconut pies I make every year at this time. (http://www.suite101.com/content/homemade-mince-coconut-pies-for-christmas-a179548) In the afternoon, we headed over to Donn’s cousin’s house for the big meal. Turns out he’s had family in the area for YEARS and we didn’t realize it. This cousin and I became friends on Facebook, and realized, after we moved into our new house, that we live less than a mile apart.
We enjoyed a delicious meal at her house yesterday. It was a nice size gathering, with 4 couples plus kids. (His cousin’s daughters are grown and came with their own spouses and children) A time of getting acquainted, figuring out memories, learning some fun family history (aside: Donn’s family, especially his parents’ generation, are extremely colourful). Ilsa regaled us with school stories; Abel played legos with the grandkids; Elliot watched football. Nothing too exciting, but certainly a change from recent celebrations in our family’s life.
Ilsa and I stayed up late watching “Julie and Julia,” which was pretty fun and made me feel slightly better about how much I like to eat good food. It was a good Thanksgiving movie.
So what did you do? And for what are you thankful this year? I’m looking for something small in the grand scheme of things, something like good coffee, or being able to open a can of pumpkin and make a perfect pie, instead of having to cook it from scratch and agonizing over the difficulty of getting the texture right. Life’s easy here.
15 comments
November 27, 2010 at 1:29 am
Lynda M O
Isn’t Easy great? We here had a long sleep-in and ate as we do every day–whatever we want whenever we want it. Holiday? Perhaps not getting mail was a bit unusual…
November 27, 2010 at 3:26 am
Jennifer (ponderosa)
I’m grateful for my brothers-in-law, who built a sledding run for my son that started on top of a piece of lawn furniture, ran through an open split-rail-fence gate, then over a little jump and into a swamp. And for my mother-in-law, who at 68 sledded that whole run as well!
Happy Thanksgiving.
November 27, 2010 at 4:33 am
Kelly @ Love Well
It sounds trite, but I am thankful for food and the ability to enjoy cooking. We are blessed with an abundance of ingredients and spices and choices, and we have machines to help us enjoy our tasks (instead of tending a fire yesterday while the turkey roasted, I took a walk through the woods). It is a delight to me. Everyday, when I cook dinner, I worship.
November 27, 2010 at 8:07 am
Nan
Fresh salad in little bags!!!!! Now THAT is easy.
We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here, and even though some of the stores are advertising ‘Black Friday Sales’ I ignored them. I did get my christmas crackers though.
November 27, 2010 at 8:13 am
meredith
Happy Thanksgiving Elizabeth.
My pumpkin pie turned out a little grainy. That pie is so hard to do when you have to cook down the “potiron” which is not the same kind of squash, anyway. But I am thankful for the pumpkin pie spice that a friend brought me back from the US…we have a grainy pie for today, but at least it tastes right 🙂
November 27, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Becky
Not to be a downer, but I just found out today about a 16 year old in our church who was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. It’s days like this that I am thankful for Kaiah’s diabetes. So thankful!
And I love all the Thanksgiving food too 🙂
So you opted for Julie and Julia instead of Almost Heroes huh? 🙂
November 27, 2010 at 9:33 pm
LIB
How fun to find you have relatives in the area. And they didn’t find you cuz you won the lottery.
November 28, 2010 at 12:59 am
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November 28, 2010 at 4:17 am
jeanne A
I was thankful that my husband and 5 kids were together. My husband after a 3 day hospitalization and my son home from college. Our meal wasn’t elaborate, but had the traditional stuff.
As for easy, I appreciate the canned cranberry sauce!
November 28, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Tonggu Momma
I am thankful for antibiotics. And for relatives willing to do all of the work on Thursday while I laid on the couch, whining, while using copious amounts of tissues.
November 29, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Linda
I badly needed a new robe and decided to brave the heaving crowds at Dillards on Black Friday. Full of trepidation, I pulled into the parking lot in front at 8 AM, found a parking spot right in front, was the first one in the door with no crowds, got my robe for $33 and was home in less than an hour. Just lucky I guess.
December 1, 2010 at 12:35 am
Caryn
Thank goodness for the internet. I waited until all the Black Friday deals, then spent most of the day online buying presents for everyone. It was exhausting, but now everything is on its way to me and I didn’t have to wake up at 3 a.m. and battle crowds to get ANY of it. Yay! I did that ONE year. Never, ever again. It was scary, and the atmosphere was as far from Christmassy as you could possibly get.
December 6, 2010 at 5:24 pm
LG
I watched Julia and Julia with my mom back around Canadian Thanksgiving. And I am thankful for a supportive husband, like the ones in the movie, who were popping Tums each night was their wives tried out more butter and cream laden delicacies.
I once made a pumpkin pie in Gabon using papaya instead of pumpkin. I guess it wasn’t “potiron” season! But they had canned “lait non sucre” and I had pumpkin pie spice, brought out in my carry on bag no doubt, so it tasted just fine! Can’t say that my crust did, but that is normal 😦
December 7, 2010 at 3:42 pm
MaryWitzl
I tell myself that what I don’t know exists I don’t need — and most of the time I get myself to believe it. I also think that waiting a long time for what you want makes it a lot nicer when you get it.
We didn’t do anything for Thanksgiving but squabble. But a few days after the fact, we had a very good day and cooked a lot of tasty things — a spinach, carmelized onion and feta pie, nut loaf, hot buttered squash, and sweet potato pie. I’m counting that as our Thanksgiving.
December 7, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Jennifer, Snapshot
Love Julie and Julia and am thinking of sharing it with my daughter soon! There are one or two scenes that I could do without from a family perspective, but otherwise — really great movie.
We watched ELF on TBS Thanksgiving weekend. It’s a tradition!
And call me a sap, but just reading your casual mention of the friend that Ilsa had over reminded me that my middle school daughter will adjust to our move and in a few months, she will have friends over too. We leave here in a few weeks, and she’s getting really sad/upset/worried about it.