Thanksgiving dinner was truly success at our home yesterday. First of all, it must have been at least six years since I have celebrated Thanksgiving with my father… so that was great to have him just in my presence for such an important holiday. I am thankful for that.

Having my divorced parents in the same room was another story. But I have to admit that the event in itself was not as bad as I thought it would be. Well it was not that bad for me. There may have been a lot of tension from my mom, but I am not certain. I told my dad last night, that I hope that one day they can not only sit in a room together, but *gulp* have a conversation. What a concept…

I do not want my children to grow up thinking that their grandparents hate each other. Family is important. The twins only have one surviving great-grandmother, two grandmothers and one grandfather left. I want William and Keisha to be close to all of them. Not just one side or one grand parent because of an estranged relationship and secretive past. My children deserve better than that. I will pray for my mother and father. Not to get back together (I can accept that their relationship has long been over), but rather to forgive one another and be amicable, because that is the right thing to do.

Back to Thanksgiving. A lot of people came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and I can proudly state that everyone that we invited showed up… and *gasp* they showed up on time. Truly an accomplishment… this may be the first and last time for that so let this be the written record of that accomplishment. Some Black people just cannot show up on time to events. If dinner starts at 3 p.m. then you better tell that one family member that it starts at 12:30 so they can show up at 3 p.m. I do not know why it works like that, but it just does. Last night was extremely out of the ordinary where the people who are guaranteed to showed up late, actually showed up on time. Amazing. I loved every bit of it.

JT outdid himself as usual and out-cooked me, but I made up for it in other ways… I guess. He cooked the turkey, baked chicken and macaroni. The previous night, he also cut up all of the vegetables for us (white, green and red onions, peppers and celery). I cooked the dressing and baked brownies and sugar cookies. I was going to cry when I noticed I did not have sage for the dressing. I forgot to get the sage from my mom. Fortunately JT’s grandmother was able to bring her sage over. Lifesaver. I used four boxes of Krustaez cornbread (it is Kosher) for the dressing, nine cans of chicken broth, green and red onions, celery and sage.

Here is a picture of JT’s turkey:

I was not pleased that Grandma had the yams with the coon. Yes folks, Grandma made raccoon for Thanksgiving. God help me. The one thing I forbade to come into my house was chitlins. Coon does not smell bad but I could not help but think of the dear raccoon from Over the Hedge as I looked at the little ribs in the pan. I could not bring myself to eat the yams wrapped around the coon. I would have made my own pan of yams if I had known this in advance.

Despite the coon incident, the meal was a success and a grand adventure. I would do it all over again.

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