Happy Thanksgiving

Yesterday I thought about Jennifer constantly as I was at the ranch by myself most of the day. All happy thoughts, but still painful. I just did not feel like writing yesterday. I will be honest I did my fair share of crying. It just sucks not having her here.

Well enough of that, it is Thanksgiving and I am blessed to have more than my fair share of things to be thankful for. I am thankful for all of my family and friends who have been so helpful as I work my way down this new road. I am Thankful that I was blessed to have Jennifer in my life. I am thankful that I have a roof over my head, food in my belly and money in my pocket. So many don't have any of that this thanksgiving. So I can bellyache how bad I have it, but to be perfectly honest, I am pretty damn fortunate all things considered.

There were only 3-4 food items that Jennifer really liked at Thanksgiving. Turkey, potatoes, dinner rolls (if someone remembered to serve them) and pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin pie was her all time favorite pie. Of course she could not eat it normal. She only would eat the fillling. She could skin a pumpkin pie crust like a fisherman fileting a fish. There would be this crust without a ounce of pumpkin filling left on it. She did the same with baked potatoes. She would not eat the skin, but she could carve one out like nobody's business.

She used to kind of like the stuffing at my folk's house until she saw it being made, after that she would not eat it. The making of the stuffing at the Sologub house is a big thing. It has sausage and all the turkeys giblets (which are run thru a grinder), bread, celery, onion, garlic powder, salt, pepper, eggs, baking powder, etc. The minute she saw those giblets go in the grinder she was done eating stuffing at the Sologub house. Grandpa and the nephews are the main chefs on getting the stuffing made.

Over the years there would be times that we would have lots of people for Thanksgiving dinner sometimes up near the 50 people mark. So there was always a lot of dishes to be done. There was all the cooking dishes and then all the plates, silverware and serving dishes. Jennifer was the main dishwasher and she learned after the first holiday or two at the Sologubs to get some dishwashing gloves, because she would have a major case of dishpan hands otherwise.

This year we will just have pretty much immediate family. So the dish count will not be huge. I will have to pick up Jennifer's slack and be on the dish crew.

We did get word yesterday that Dad will be coming home on Monday. He is pretty happy about that. I will be here with them until early January and then my sister Colleen has elected to take Emergency family leave and she is going to be here from January until early April. So I am very thankful and appreciative for that.

2023 is quickly disappearing, and I will be thankful to see it behind me, as it has needless to say, been a shitty year.

Well enough for today, I better get ready to help cook and find some dishwashing gloves.