A Day For Which To Be Thankful

“Okay, kids,” Christa addressed the five children at the breakfast table. “Here's the scoop. I need you to clear the table. I need the dishes done, and the table set for lunch. I need a couple of volunteers to do a hundred pickup downstairs, and I need a bunch of potatoes peeled.” 

The five kids sat at the kitchen table trying not to make eye contact with their mother while they waited for each other to talk. 

“If you guys speak up, you'll be able to pick your jobs,” their mother reminded them gently. “If no one picks anything, I’ll pick for all of you.

“I wanna peel potatoes,” Scott spoke up.

“I'll wash the dishes!” Kelsey exclaimed as if there would be competition for such a task. 

“I'll dry, I guess,” Luke volunteered with a decidedly defeated tone.

“Okay then,” Christa declared with satisfaction. “Caleb and Lizzy are on a hundred pick-up. Everything on the first floor, no cheating. Deal?”

“Deal,” all five responded in unison.

Scott settled in at the kitchen table with a twenty pound bag of potatoes, a vegetable peeler, a paring knife, and a stock pot. Kelsey started washing dishes as Luke pushed a stool up to the counter. Caleb and Kerry started their hundred pick-up. Hundred pick-up was like a game except not fun. The deal was that the participants in this game had to pick up and put away a hundred items each. Depending on the target cleaning zone and the number of participants, that was usually enough to ensure a pretty thorough cleaning. It was tedious, but effective. Every once in a while the kids would try to pull on over on their mother. They might tear a piece of paper apart so it counted as more pieces or count every page in a book as an individual item. They thought they were getting away with it, but every once in a while their mother made sure to let them know that she knew what was going on in her house.

As the children busied themselves with their tasks, their mother retrieved a twenty-five pound turkey from the back porch. (The back porch wasn't actually a porch. It would have been better described as a mud room. None of the children really knew when or why it became known as the back porch.) The turkey had been marinating in a saltwater brine overnight and was ready to roast. She stuffed the turkey in the back porch wash sink before sticking it in an oven bag and tossing the whole kit and caboodle into a roasting pan. 

“What's that red thing sticking out of the turkey?” Scott asked as Christa put the roaster in the oven.

“That is going to tell me when the turkey is done,” his mother explained. “It measures the temperature of the inside of turkey. When it get's hot enough, the red dot will pop out and we'll know it's safe to eat.”

“Yeah, silly,” Kelsey chuckled from the sink. “Everyone knows that.”

“Apparently not,” Scott mumbled from his potato peeling station. “I guess everyone knows that now.”

It wasn't long before the dishes were done, the potatoes peeled and boiling, and Caleb and Lizzy were reporting back from their hundred pick-up. The five children helped their mother set the table. They were extremely careful as they handled the tan Pfaltzgraff dishes with the dark brown design. These were Chista's special dinnerware, only used for guests and special occasions. There was some discussion over the placement of the silverware in relation to the plate. Finally, it was decided that the napkin and the fork would go on the left side of the plate and the knife and spoon would go on the right with the spoon on the outside and the glass at the point of the knife. With the table set and dinner preparations well underway, Christa turned to address her children.

“Okay, here's the scoop. You guys can go play, but stay clean and don't make a mess. And stay out of the kitchen. Deal?” 

The children nodded. 

“Say deal.” their mother prompted with some sternness in her voice.

“Deal,” the five children responded in unison.

The children separated, each doing his or her own thing until mealtime. Scott went to his room to read one of his Great Illustrated Classics. Caleb got on the family computer to play a military strategy game called Red Alert. (The family desk was in the kitchen, but Christa said it would be alright as long as he stayed out of the way.) Luke joined his brother Scott in their shared room, though not to read. Luke's preferred recreational activity was playing with his army men. He became extremely interested in the stationary, green plastic figures ever since he had first seen the movie Toy Story. The girls went to their room to play with their dolls. The children managed to keep themselves busy and out of trouble for the next few hours, which was really quite and accomplishment.

“Dinner's ready,” their mother called from downstairs.

The children converged in the kitchen withing seconds. They were greeted by the heavenly aroma of Thanksgiving dinner and boy, were they thankful. The turkey sat at the head end of the table. A huge bowl of mashed potatoes, steaming and swimming with butter sat in the center of the table with a gravy boat of light brown turkey gravy on either side. The green beans sat directly in between the stove top stuffing and the cranberry sauce. The entire family sat down at the table, the two girls on the far bench, the three boys on the near bench, Christa on the right and Dale on the left. They all joined hands as Dale led the family in prayer.

“Dear Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for this food. Bless this meal to our bodies and bless the hands that prepared it for us. Thank you for this family and everything you've provided for us. In Jesus name, amen.”

After a slight pause out of respect, Dale began to carve the turkey and dished out each person's plate as they held it out to him. The potatoes started next, directly followed by the gravy. The rest of the courses followed in no particular order. The family enjoyed their meal immensely as they chatted about the typical family subjects. The main subject of conversation was the general title of the meal they were enjoying. The children were confused because dinner was normally the name of the evening meal. The children wanted to know why what would normally be referred to as lunch was suddenly being referred to as dinner.

“Well,” their father explained. “Dinner is not actually synonymous with the evening meal. Historically, the term dinner refers to the largest or most important meal of the day.”

“I thought breakfast was the most important meal of the day,” Luke commented even more confused.

“Well,” Dale responded with a mischievous smile on his face. “You're right about that, but there is only one name for breakfast so that's why we just call it breakfast.”

The young man nodded with understanding, satisfied with his fathers answer as Christa stifled laughter at the other end of the table.

They finished up their meal and one by one, the children asked to be excused. They picked up their respective plates and silverware, carried them carefully to the counter by the sink and returned to the table for the glass. The children congregated in the living room as they allowed their dinner to settle. After a few minutes, their parents stood in the kitchen doorway and addressed the children.

“Well,” their mother began. “As you all know, the extended family Thanksgiving gathering is underway and usually goes well into the evening.”

“Now, we're going to give you guys a choice,” Dale continued. “We can either head over to my cousin's house and join the festivities, or you can put the Christmas tree up.”

A chorus of cheers erupted from the living room. The decision was unanimous. All five children tore up the stairway to the rat attic. (The rat attic was a crawl space above the kitchen that was used for storage. It was named for its size rather than its contents and did not, in fact, contain any rats...as far as anybody knew.) Moments later two of the boys reappeared carrying a large cardboard box and the other three carried a variety of smaller boxes. The five children gathered around the larger box and began sorting out the color coated, artificial pine fronds. Dale and Christa relaxed in their seats on the double reclining couch and smiled as they watched their children do their work.