THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving was a day of meat, beer, and cookies. Day 12 of sumo's November honbasho. Playing board/party games. Hanging out. Being with family.



To accompany turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, I selected Pelican Brewing's Bad Santa Cascadian Dark Ale.



To pair with pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, I selected Iron Horse Brewery's Cozy Sweater Milk Stout.



Now The Father is watching Grand Sumo too! So we all watched Day Twelve after our Thanksgiving meal. Family members who had no idea what was going on were watching with us and asking questions.



Our favorite rikishi for this tournament.

TWT = Kotonowaka.

The Child = Takanosho.

The Wife = Wakatakakage.

The Father = Oho.

LOADED BAKED POTATO SOUP

A long-standing Thanksgiving Eve tradition is our church holding a soup-and-bread dinner followed by worship. Another related long-standing tradition is The Wife making her Loaded Baked Potato Soup (as one of the choices for said dinner), also lovingly known as "Heart Attack in a Bowl." She only makes it once per year, so it is something I look forward to in the fall.

In addition to the soup itself, the skins that were peeled off of the potatoes are fried in bacon grease. The crispy skins and bits of bacon then go on top of the soup as a garnish.

This is seriously some "A level" cooking!

DUVEL

Five years ago, I had my first bottle of Duvel for Thanksgiving. I wasn't fond of it then. This Thanksgiving, I once again sipped on my annual holiday bottle with turkey and cranberries. It's grown on me. It still isn't my favorite, but I can appreciate it in ways that I couldn't half a decade past. And, now it's a tradition.

THANKSGIVING

"I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds."
—Psalm 9:1

I awake to the low rumble of the furnace as it heats the house. I wander in the dawn darkness as the wife and child slumber. The outside thermometer reads 25.2° F. The ground is laced in white frost. The birdbath is frozen solid, chickadees trying to drink after they have taken black sunflower seeds from the feeder. I put my shoes on, go outside, and fill the birdbath with hot water. It steams. I am thankful for my family, for food and good beer, for shelter and warmth, for relatively good health, recent events notwithstanding.