On Thanksgiving Day, my friend Heidi wrote, My favorite time of year is getting to see what everyone is making and how they’re setting their table.
I had to laugh.
Heidi’s table looked gorgeous. Like a page out of Martha Stewart Living. There were candles and placemats and fancy harvest-themed decorations. Our T-Day was decidedly less upscale.
For starters, we didn’t even have a table. (Strike that; we have a table. But it mostly serves as a receptacle for mail and other assorted paperwork.) We ate our turkey etc. on TV trays in the basement while watching Planes, Trains & Automobiles.
I should mention that in all the years hosting, we were never quite so casual, though one year we did use paper plates and plastic utensils to make cleanup easier. But, these days it’s just the two of us. Why bother? I did idly mention to Tara possibly eating at the dining room table, but she just kinda shrugged her shoulders and that was the end of that.
The truth is, we never eat supper at the dining room table unless we have guests. Most nights our plates are balanced on our laps or, if the meal requires a knife, served on those TV trays, while we watch The Amazing Race or Kitchen Nightmares or something. Is this wrong? My parents were kind of aghast when they learned of our dining habits, but what’s the point, really? When I was raising my kids, I always insisted we have sit-down dinners at the dining room table. But once they flew the coop, the Beaver Cleaver lifestyle evolved into more of an Al Bundy-like existence. After a long day at work, we just want to kick back. Hand down the pants? Don’t judge.
And while I joked about the table collecting paperwork (which is true), we do use it for eating meals, too. Breakfast and lunch. But the only time it gets used after 5 p.m. is Saturday nights when we’re playing cards. Even then, we’re only using it for drinks, and to prop up the cribbage board.
It’s been a good holiday weekend, but like the rapper, Too Short. It’s amazing how quickly four days fly by. Friday was supposed to be relaxing, but I spent much of it packing up the harvest decorations and moving all our Christmas bins indoors. I did fire up the wood stove just to test it out. Took a bit of trial and error, as I had no idea there were three dampers, but my smoke detector let me know in no uncertain terms something was amiss. Oops.
I will say it’s awfully efficient. Warmed the basement up from 63º to 70º in no time. And for those of you wondering, a wood stove is a freestanding, self-contained metal box with doors. A fireplace is open. While you can’t beat the ambience of the latter, it’s hard to argue with the EPA: wood stoves are 50% more energy efficient, create less pollution, and use 1/3 less wood for heat while providing more warmth.
Saturday, we finished hanging the rest of the outdoor lights, and then moved inside. Put up the tree and about seven bins worth of holiday decor. Good hell, we have a lot of shit. And then, right on cue, we woke up to snow this morning.
Other than a dusting on Halloween, this was our first decent snowfall of the season. Nothing major; it’s still coming down, but we’re not expecting more than 2″ or so. Just enough to get us in the holiday spirit.
By the way, I’ll never get tired of that view. Sure wish I was working from home tomorrow to enjoy it from my desk, instead of schlepping into the office. Schlepping is overrated.
Also, my town has a thing for cows. Seven life-size replicas representing each of the major dairy breeds were placed around the streets this month. I find that pretty moo-ving.
Is your Thanksgiving formal or casual? Do you ever use TV trays? What is your town known for, and does it celebrate that heritage with statues or artwork?
Mark My Words 
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