happy day ... joy in the big things .. joy in the small things ...

today is thanksgiving day in the old u. s. of a ..... it is a commemoration of olden day folks who were living a hard life, feasting with friends, old and new ..... now a days, it us usually a feast with family and friends... as well as a time to be thankful for our multitude of blessings, big and small ....

one of my blessings is the space for two tables end to end to make our giant feast table ....

my good news, my blessing, is that there will be fifteen at our table for our feast ... and because we have so many to make happy, we have two kinds of turkeys (fried, roasted), two kinds of potatoes (mashed, twice baked garlic parmesan), two purveyors of gravy (dressing, stuffing), more carbs, a few veggies, and ... drum roll, please .... six pies .... really? it is all about the pie for me .. i need a piece today and a piece tomorrow and a piece on saturday ... and if you don't have enough pies today, you might not get any tomorrow ... and tomorrow is still the holiday for us ... i'll still be feeding fifteen after all ...

in fact, yesterday, i fed fifteen for dinner ..... want to know the trickiest bit about that? napkins ...that's right ... napkins can be tricky, at least in my house .... you see, i don't use paper napkins ... when i got married twenty years ago, i swore off paper napkins and paper towels ... what a waste .... i use fabric ... only ... for everything .... people ask for paper towels and i hand them cloth ... no, i need a paper towel ... no, i don't have paper towels ... i can't use that ... use it, it's a rag ....

so, the trick is not the number of napkins ... the trick is using the napkin more than once ...you know? for environmental reasons? if you only wipe your mouth twice on it, can't you use it for breakfast tomorrow? or lunch? or dinner? for my family, it's easy, we each have our favorite napkin ring ... when the napkin seems done, you throw it in the wash .... napkins are washed every two or three days (or instantly if we eat salmon or tilapia) ... and for the most part it isn't gross or difficult or complicated .... so ... yesterday, before the relatives arrived, girl.beck.artist was charged with figuring out the napkin situation ... she could have given boys orange napkins and girls green , thereby allowning to people to have a snowflake or a spring or a zebra... but she went with every one gets floral napkins and 15 different napkin rings ....a red, green, blue, yellow heart ... a spring (we have four of them but could only use one) ... a snowflake, a sterling silver fanciness, a zebra, a variety of fish ..... i am my usual metal duck .... that duck came in a set of animals .... the big question was who should be the pig? would anyone say "i'm the pig" or "that pig is so me" ? so girl.beck.artist gave the pig to the cute boy cousin who she just knew would find it funny ....

so, our first round of napkins (dinner, breakfast, lunch) are in the wash ..... and we are on to our next round ... starting with our feast .....

happy thanksgiving ... i hope you find joy in the small things ... in fact, i hope you have a napkin ring, that someone picked it out carefully just for you, and that it makes you happy ....