Thanksgiving has always been a special holiday for me having grown up in a large family. This was the meal when the whole family was at the table together. Mom would go buy the biggest turkey she could find, usually 22 or 23 lbs. It took a lot to satisfy 7 kids growing up together. Mom made this stuffing that was out of this world. She would start on Wednesday laying several loaves of bread to get stale. If it wasn�'t hard and crusty it wasn�'t ready for the stuffing. I�'m not sure the reason for this because the first thing she would do with it was put turkey drippings in it to make it juicy. The best stuffing was what was cooked inside the turkey. It was a lot moister than the stuffing cooked in a separate dish. The bird would go into the oven before many of us woke up. There was always the concern about how long it would take for a 23lb turkey to thaw in the refrigerator. The specialists warned everyone each year to thaw the bird in the refrig to avoid spoilage and the variou
s maladies that go with it. Most of the time my sisters helped in the kitchen. We always had mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows toasted on top. I had quite a sweet tooth then so this was one of my favorites. Then there were the green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy, special breads and rolls, and of course the turkey. When the turkey and all the fixings were ready the family would gather around the table, have a blessing and enjoy the feast.
Monica on the other hand was not born in the US. She didn�'t know anything about Thanksgiving until she was about 11. Her memory from the year her family immigrated to the US was her mom fixed turkey legs rather than a whole bird. They had heard American tradition is to have turkey on the holiday but didn�'t know what it involved. A few years later when we were working on getting married my mom taught Monica how to prepare a proper Thanksgiving turkey dinner. She has been doing it ever since and we have passed the tradition on to our kids as well. Monica�'s mom did learn how to make a turkey feast and hosted many Thanksgiving parties for their friends.
Now here we are on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Monica bought a couple turkey legs in Mindelo, had just baked some bread that was used in the stuffing, brought some sweet potatoes and marshmallows so we could have a small feast in our cockpit. She couldn�'t find any cranberries on the east side of the Atlantic but you can�'t always have everything you want.
We are thankful for health and strength and daily bread as well as our safe passage so far. We are thankful that Rachel�'s twins are home from the hospital. We are thankful for our many friends and family that are supporting us during our fulfillment of this dream.