Ghosts of Turkeys Past

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. In fact, I'm going to my first of three dinners this Sunday. It's the annual "Apartment Thanksgiving" with my college friends, only none of us currently live in apartments. I will be making cranberry sauce (it's my thing), pumpkin roll, brownie cheesecake (for Ellen who dislikes pumpkin and pies), and spinach dip. The big day itself will be hosted at my house with 20-30 relatives from both family sides. Ugh. We'll have two turkeys--one oven roasted, the other deep-fried. I'm making rolls and cranberry sauce. The final meal will be at Elise's the Sunday after. It will also be the only boozy one. In addition to the sauce, I'll be bringing dressing and some sort of pie.

When I was younger, Thanksgiving was not my favorite holiday. There were relatives to contend with, televised parades to ignore, football games to avoid, and homework to procrastinate. But once I got to college, there were also friends to celebrate with and from many Friendsgivings, it has become one of my favorite holidays. Besides, I love to cook and eat. So here are my top five Thanksgivings.

2005
I was a sophomore in college living in the Villa apartments with five other guys. Gross. I was also working at Convergys where employees were guaranteed only one of the Big Three holidays off: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. I got Christmas off, which meant I would be on my own in Cedar City for the holiday and working. But it actually was really fun. Work was really slow, so we played games like Ten Fingers (I Have Never) and bounced bouncy balls all over the call room. The few people who did call in always wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. Then I went home to an empty apartment--all mine. I don't remember what I had to eat, but I did drink an entire bottle of Meier's Sparkling grape juice (that stuff is seriously good guys!) while watching The Rules of Attraction (something of a guilty pleasure). After the movie I was so wound up--sugar rush!--that I went cruising Cedar's Main Street (a favorite pastime of mine), and the street was decorated and lit up for holidays and Christmas music was playing on the radio. All in all, it was a lovely way to spend Thanksgiving by myself.

2010
Last year I hosted my first Thanksgiving with Heidi. We were going to feed all the iSchool orphans who didn't have family in the area, but in the end they all decided to fly home for family Thanksgivings anyway. (Even my dad called last minute, offering to fly me home for the weekend, but I didn't want to leave Heidi all alone.) This did not deter me from making an entire feast including my first turkey (well turkey breast--nobody was coming and Heidi's vegetarian). Heidi made the mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and a pumpkin spice cake. I made everything else--we had rolls for days. In the end Chloe and Cameron were are only guests bringing cranberry bread and sparkling pinot noir. We had plenty of wine and plenty of food. After dinner we played Trivial Pursuit. And then I did have to finish an assignment that I didn't understand (on Thanksgiving! evil!) drunk. The other nice part of last year was that campus operations were suspended Monday evening (just as I was leaving work) due to a little snow and cold weather that resulted in two snow days. No class for a whole week. It was a Thanksgiving miracle.

2008
The year before I left for Seattle, I had a Friendsgiving at Chez Whitney's. There was much drunkenness so I don't remember a whole lot of the food, except that it was delicious. Pecan pie, yum! There was even a fight/breakdown which just means that it is officially the holidays. We ended up watching Pieces of April drunk and doped out on fat calories. Good friend times. Dain, Whitney, Alex, Elise, I miss us.

The Gang (not on Thanksgiving)

2006
This was Apartment Thanksgiving my junior year. After dinner we moved all of the couches outside, huddled under blankets, and sang Christmas songs. It was very cold. and fun.

The furniture is outside!

Huddling under the blankets with Valerie. It was cold!

1995
This was one of the more unusual Thanksgivings I've had. We went camping in the Nevada desert outside of Boulder. My step-grandfather's nephew owns an old gold mine there, so there we went. It was also my first time eating deep-fried turkey. We kids explored the caves, shot potato guns, and went on a wild treasure hunt on ATVs.

(Dis)Honorable Mention
2007
My senior year I lived in an apartment with an oven that didn't work properly. It turned out one of the heating elements was broken. We did not realize this for the longest time. Even after the turkey had been roasting for quite some time, it still was not cooked. So we took the turkey over to Ellen's apartment, but in the end, Melissa carved the bird up and cooked the pieces in a pan. If it weren't for her, we may have all died or at least gotten very sick.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!