Thanksgiving and No Ice Cream Sandwiches

On the afternoon before Thanksgiving, the temperature dropped to a blessed 76 degrees, and it began to rain. A general uproar ensued, in which Cassie madly dashed out the front door and joined two of her younger siblings in a dance of insane happiness, abandoning the cranberry sauce to a simmering fate on the stovetop.

Yes, the change in weather was so sweet. I was so happy that it not only dropped to 76, but well below, with a wicked wind to chase the leaves across the grass. The cranberry sauce was no worse for the cook going AWOL. Cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie are my two favorite Thanksgiving foods (well, candied sweet potatoes vie for a place as well) so naturally I got to make them this year. To think, my mother was going to leave off the pumpkin pie just because we had to resort to canned pumpkin! Canned pumpkin is a sad fate, being so similar to baby food, but even canned is better than nothing.

The pie is fortunate that it came into existence at all, considering the distracted state the cook was in all afternoon. Holidays are so precious, but being a sentimental person, I guess I sometimes take them a little seriously. Suddenly, when you are standing in the kitchen enveloped in a Christmas apron, surrounded by a passel of pies and a scent of cinnamon and a huge mess of flour, and the leaves are dying outside in the greyness...all the seasons and Thanksgivings of the past can tumble down on top of you like a load of dusty old classics in the top of your closet. You think of that particular rendering of the Doxology, or that wintery walk, or that particular pumkin pie now lost forever to gastronmical memory. And with the happy memories that you can't seem to retrace completely, come dreams, and fears, for the future...knowing and longing and wondering about it...

"It is always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are simply going around the corner and will return in a few minutes with ice-cream sandwiches."

- Lemony Snicket

Life seems to be all leaving and saying goodbye with no ice cream sandwiches. And I haven't even left or moved away! I think more than anything, I am homesick over the home I haven't left, the friends I haven't yet had to said goodbye to, and the family that is all around me as I speak. Realizing what can't come back from the past makes me ache for what I'm going to miss in the future...

So go ahead and say "Cassie, what are we going to do with you!" Or don't bother. It's already done. I'm better now. I know that was a shamefully outrageous burst of emotional goobldegop. Baking Thanksgiving pies is not supposed to drive a person into depression!

It's truly a beautiful Thanksgiving Eve, and I'm thankful to God that this year I am here, with my dear family, just as He perfectly ordained it. The future is bright with Him.

Oh, and Nano...

38,888 words, planning to reach 40k tonight. Kip got in big trouble and the Prince almost had a knife plunged through his heart, but he's going to be ok. He's very quick and able. And Mrs. Mudge is a very good nurse.