I would be criminally remiss in not at least offering some reflection on our observations of the Thanksgiving holiday this year. In fact, I will cast my gaze of memory back even further to our celebration with Ruth's brother John.

John manages a movie theater in Dallas, TX and so can't be here on the actual date of any big holidays, so he usually comes up a week or two before and we have a sort of pre-holiday with him. As is typically the case, our Thanksgiving observations with John consist of going out to dinner two or three nights the week he is in town. Unfortunately now, due to my shocking lack of diligence in the execution of my endeavors here at TOV, the only events of that week I now recall are those of the night we made the ceremonial trek up to Carrolton, IL to have pork chops at The Brass Door.

On Tuesday and Thursday nights, pork chops are all you can eat at The Brass Door. The waitresses drop off big bowls of green beans and mashed potatoes, and big platters of breaded pork chops until you tell'em to quit. The food is good, but I guess I must be attaining some form of maturity since the feeding frenzy mentality of such a situation no longer calls to me. I'll eat one or two chops with plenty of potatoes and be thoroughly satisfied.

The plan was for Ruth, Isaiah,and I to show up at the Denby's house in time for us all to arrive at the restaurant by 7:30 to 7:45, the time for which we had reservations which are advisable though not required. I had to work later than I had intended and almost put these plans in jeopardy with my tardiness, but we arrived exactly on schedule nonetheless.

We left our van at the Denby's house and rode with Aunt in her Blazer. I sat in the back with Isaiah. I don't often get to ride with him as I am almost always driving when he and I are in an automobile together, so it was a rare treat. Aunt had bought him a new toy, a 6" tall stuffed "Mike"character from the movie Monsters Inc., evidently because he was a good boy that day, and a book about characters from the same movie to read while we endured the typical long wait at the restaurant.

The wait, however, was atypically short. We were seated as soon as we walked through the door. The book was useful, though, in keeping the still well-behaved, but fidgety Isaiah occupied while we waited for our food to be delivered. The crowd this evening was remarkably light and this contributed to all of our enjoyment of the evening in that not only could we actually talk to each other without shouting, but the climate control system was doing an unusually sufficient job of keeping the temperature below 85°.

Dinner was nice and we all had a good time, but I don't remember much after it. I had been working pretty hard that week and I dozed off on the ride back to the Denby's. When we arrived, I laid down on the couch and remember being awakened some time later to get up and get in the van so Ruth could drive us home.

The festivities of the more widely accepted date of the holiday conformed to the annual template perfectly in all but one factor. I stayed up all night Wednesday smoking a turkey, we went to the Denby's first for lunch around 12:30 and showed up at Aunt Mary's house at about 2:30. We then went back to the Denby's to pick up Kroger, whom we had taken with us and left there, and stayed somewhat longer than I would have liked before returning home to put the sleeping Isaiah in his bed.

In every aspect, all was as it had been- every aspect except one, that is. This year, the first time in all the time I have been smoking turkeys (four or five years) I cleaned out the smoker before 10:30pm on Wednesday night! I had actually cleaned it out on Saturday afternoon. Of course, the contents of the smoker had been in it for 361 days.

It worked so well I intend to clean it out the Saturday before Thanksgiving again next year.