Thanksgiving is over and we had many things to be thankful for this year: a successful career, good health, love, and friends and family. Thanksgiving for me has many family memories, some good and some bad. For example, one year my father did a nose-dive right into the turkey as he prepared to carve it. We laughed and laughed, as Mother (Aurora) took him off to bed and told the story how “he had been up since 5 am cooking the 25 lbs turkey.” Later we learned he had been “celebrating” since 5 am, too.
November is quickly coming to an end, and December will bring even more holiday good cheer, but first I must reflect on this year’s Thanksgiving feast – a modern new twist to the traditional Thanksgiving turkey. Wanting to do something different, I passed on the bird idea and decided to do something that perhaps the pilgrims could have done had they have thought of it. Fresh two-pound lobsters! That’s right, two-pound lobsters. Yum yum. The lobster tank was full and I had a wide selection of lobsters to choose from. I began to ponder as I waited for them, giving lobster thanks to the lobster tank. With my lobsters in hand, I was stopped by many last minute shoppers asking “Are you having lobster’s today? What a great idea.” I was proud to say “yes,” a modern twist to a traditional holiday.
That said, I posted my lobster idea on Facebook and I was overwhelmed by just how many of you loved the idea. I guess there are a lot of us that are tired of a turkey.
A festive table was set, the holiday music was playing, and thanks to the DVR, my guests arrived to enjoy the parade when we were ready for it. I chose to have my guests arrive in back tie rather than casual, after all, I was serving caviar hors-d’oeuvres. A fresh new tradition for Rosebrook Gardens as the champagne continued to flow. Unlike years past, we enjoyed the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade at noon while sipping our champagne, feasting on our caviar and fast-forwarding through all commercials.
Dinner was served at two and we gave thanks for the amazing meal and the blessings to have each other in our lives. This also happened to be my friend Mary’s birthday (a big one), so I felt I wanted to do something both different and extra special. She was happy to be there as I was to have her celebrate with me; we both felt blessed with such an amazing day.
So rather than going with tradition, one can have an extra-extraordinary festive holiday by doing new things. Truth be told, it’s always about the food, the friends and the love that make any holiday one to remember. Mine just happened to be a seafood theme, which was perfect, because no one was on a diet that day, so the moment we “seafood”, we ate it. Definitely a good memory this year. Who knows, maybe the lobsters will make a return appearance at Christmas; after all, I still believe in Santa “claws.”
