November 19, 2011
Oh my – it’s already 2pm and I’m just sitting down to write today’s note. It has been a VERY busy morning here in the café. Was then and still is. We’re full of kids, full of happy parade viewers, full of chilled and hungry parents, a perfect combination, in my humble opinion.
This year I stood out on the sidewalk for the entire parade, surrounded by a gaggle of Laurey’s folks, both staff and their children and customers and their children. While the group started small, by the time the parade actually started, we were a group of more than 20. Amazing. All these people are related to this funny little business. Quite the scene. Quite the revelation for me. On we go.
Yesterday was a fun day. Adam and I went out to Blue Ridge Food Ventures and made a whole pile of Cranberry Chutney. We started with 96 pounds of cranberries and, in two hours, we filled a whole bunch of jars with this year’s batch of my favorite chutney. My favorite moment was when I was leaning over the 50 gallon vat of steaming berries, inhaling the cinnamon, the cloves, the aroma of the oranges and the vinegar and the apple cider as it all melded into next week’s condiment. It still amazes me that we can turn out so many jars of chutney, some 200 jars, in a few short hours.
Tonight we have a party here in the café. And next week we swing into Thanksgiving mode. Our walk-in is filling up with turkey and dinner components. In one corner of our office we have boxes of pie boxes, and in another, wine for the gravy. Mmm. Mmmm.
My big sister is coming later in the week. My middle sister is already here. Our family tends to celebrate when we get together, whether or not we gather on the actual day. I think this year we’ll sit down on Saturday. And, depending on how we feel, we’ll have pizza or spaghetti or, perhaps, our own Turkey dinner. We’ll see. Heather is working at the Biltmore Estate on Thursday and Lucinda’s new S.O. (I just learned this – “significant other”) is having brunch with his children on Friday, so Saturday it is for us. I will be joining folks on Thursday at two different family gatherings and will stop in on Saturday to say hello to others. It is the third to the last of my treatments this week so I may opt to sleep through some festivities but I love gravy so I’ll probably rally.
Tomorrow is yard work day at my house. The fabulous trio of folks from here who do yard work when they are not cooking, will be coming to help put the gardens to bed. I have some bee tending to do and Tye has some mole catching. We’ll finish the day with friends for tacos. All good. All good.
I hope you have nice things planned for this week. It has always been my favorite week of the year and this year I am especially thankful for the ability to rebound from another challenge. I’m enormously thankful for friends and for my family who have dropped so much in these past months to take care of me. I’m getting along and a big reason for that is them – and you.
For now – time to wrap things up and scoot. The party staff will be arriving any moment now and before I know it things will be bustling and hustling and just thinking about it makes me think that I might just like to go home and have a nice nap.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Blessings. Gratitude. Love.
