The Day After
The well-stuffed family gathers on the steps of the cottage for the traditional photo. Thanksgiving Day began stormy, with snow and wind and rain, and ended with the bright yellow sunlight slanting onto the ocean from the west. 
After the photo, my cousin Jim's son Andrew put on two wetsuits and went surfing in the 50-degree water. Most of the rest of us took naps.
Today, after all the guests had left, Darlene and Claire and I made our way to the Maine Mall. Just for laughs, I stopped at Best Buy and asked if they had any XBox 360s available. A sales guy told me the store had immediately sold out the 40 or 50 they were allotted for Opening Night Tuesday, and the next shipment may or may not arrive before Christmas. Now we are at Borders in the cafe. Claire is asleep on a chair in her travel bag, exhausted after the delight of having five other dogs to terrorize for two days.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Going Cold Turkey
It snowed here on the coast of Maine this morning--just right for a Courier & Ives Thanksgiving in New England. We worry about family who will be driving north from Boston on slick roads, but they are a winter-savvy bunch and the horse knows the way...
I love wearing a sweater, scarf, and wool hat here inside the Starbucks in Saco, thinking about August days when, come to think of it, I was always too cold because they kept the air conditioning so high. The forecast is for sunny and high of 55 in Denver. The Saco Valley Credit Union across Route 1 risks this non-secular greeting on its digital sign: "Happy Thanksgiving! Bless You!!"
I need to keep my visit to the sanctuary of Starbucks short, in order to drive back to the cottage and see what needs to be done. There are rumors that this will be the last time my parents host Thanksgiving here in Maine, because of various logistical problems, so next year the annual turkey trauma may shift to the big house in Cambridge. I don't mind, as long as our family observance of Thanksgiving remains in New England, not far from where this tradition, like so much else of lasting value in America, was invented.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
