A non-Thanksgivingey Thanksgiving

We live far from our two families; Mr. F's is on the East Coast, mine is really, really far away, in South Africa. For that reason, Thanksgiving at our house isn't like most families' day.

We do have some things in common with traditional Thanksgivings: we spend the day together doing only fun stuff. We eat and talk about how much we have to be thankful for. It is is very laid back; no pressure, not a lot of cooking, mostly nibbling this and that.

When we lived on the East Coast, we had our share of typical Thanksgivings. Most of them were fun...and then there was the year that the turkey attacked Mr. F and left him scarred for life: that is the way he tells it.

It happened twenty-six years ago but I do remember it as if it were yesterday...(cue the wobbly fade effect and flashback music as I cast my eyes heavenward)

His mom, as with every Thanksgiving, was pulling out all the stops with food. She could cook a twenty pound turkey like no one else and about an hour before dinner, the big bird was coming out of the oven. Mr. F, his dad and uncle were chatting in the living room. One of them asked her if she needed help handling the enormous, searingly hot pan. She declined and asked that I stand by in the event that she did.

After she opened the oven door and reached in with oven mitts, everything just started happening in slow motion.

She lost control of the pan when it tilted and the fatty drippings poured over the side, at which time she started yelling for help which I couldn't give her as both oven mitts were occupied. Our hero (that would be Mr. F) came charging into the small kitchen, slipped on the greasy linoleum and slid partially under the still-open oven door with one leg, bumping into her which launched the bird into the air where I swear it hung for five seconds before dropping onto his bare ankle. Even with kicking it off as soon as his stunnedness let up, it burned a large, deep hole right on his outside ankle bone that took till the next Thanksgiving to heal properly.

Today, thankfully, was nothing like that. The most exciting thing that happened is that I opened the package in which my upgrade to Photoshop CS4 arrived on Monday. Tomorrow I'll install it, spend a bit of time in the online tutorials and dispel some of the mystery. Now, why the CD jacket, when held almost parallel to the fluorescent light looks like water with a sinking sheet of paper is a mystery I don't need to solve. It just does.

To all blip families in North America: hope your turkeys were juicy, stayed in the pan and you had all your loved ones with you!