turkeytime

SO MUCH FOOD! An 18 pound turkey with gravy and stuffing, mashed potatoes, pureed sweet potatoes with walnuts and goat cheese, leeks in vinaigrette, (overcooked) brussels sprouts in lemon, and, always, Sam's favourite - canned peas. For dessert, our friend Sylvie made an incredibly rich and divine dark chocolate BEET cake with fancy icing for Sam's birthday. Yes, after all that, we ate dessert.

Luckily, Anna came with her peeps, my surrogate daughters Holly and Nicole, and Carol, my tenant and friend, is back from her other home in Ecuador, because I can tell you, it took all of us to get the meal on the table and deal with energetic Eli and Ben who likes to be held. We passed around the baby, took turns reading to and playing with Eli, and mashed and stirred and set the table and got 'er done. My son, who's always exhausted these days - closed four nights in a row at the restaurant, which means he works till 2 and then does the books and cleans up till 4 or 5 a.m. - ate a great deal with gusto and then lay down on the sofa and did not move, until it was time to go to the fridge again.

A bath in the kitchen sink

 Glamma dries him off. So small! So loud!

Greeting for my kids' dad's wife Tracey, whose birthday is today. Ben is wearing the cool Hendrix bib I bought for my nephew some years ago in London.

Blessings. Last night I saw a documentary on TVO, a scientist talking about the miracle on our planet of water, sunshine, oxygen. Today I am grateful for those fundamental things, as well as family and friends and shelter. Health. Satisfying work. Music. The garden and trees and birds. For my son, 31 tomorrow, and my daughter and her family. For this country which will, yes, which will turf out those scumbags next Monday. Sorry, but they are. And on top of all this, the weather is breathtaking, and it's now 10.25, which means that soon I can drag this giant stomach up the stairs and go to bed.