Many hands reduced the log pile to 5 cord of firewood. Photo by Kathy Lena.

Thanksgiving 2017 by the numbers:

Between Sunday, November 19, when the first relatives arrived from California, to Sunday, November 25, when the last visitors departed after lunch, we

• Prepared and served 58 dinners
• Entertained 25 different visitors
• Put up twelve different overnight guests who stayed from one to five nights
• Changed linens on seven different beds
• Lost count of breakfasts served, lunches eaten and towels laundered
• Ran the dishwasher three times a day
• Cut, split and stacked five cord of wood
• Finished most of the leftovers
• Had a fantastic time

In addition, I went out hunting most mornings at five and returned in time to join others for breakfast around nine.

Except for two trips to pick up and drop-off the Californians at the airport, I didn’t get in the car.

Not so most of our guests. Except for the West Coast contingent, they arrived by car from Brooklyn, and Scarsdale, NY: New Haven, CT; Greenfield, MA; Enfield, NH; Essex, VT, and Orono, ME.

Kathy, my friend from Maine, had a peripatetic Thanksgiving, making about an 800-mile circuit from Orono to Portsmouth, Falmouth, Kittery, Concord, Greenfield, Newfane and home.

“I read your post, Hosting a Destination Thanksgiving,” she said, “and I was jealous.”

“There are trade-offs,” I reminded her. 

But I’m not complaining.

We put the new kitchen through its paces with great success: Our planning to create a work space that could accommodate multiple cooks engaged in preparing a multi-course meal for seventeen panned out with just a little strategic sharing space between the two ovens.

We had lots of pie: 2 sour cherry, 2 pumpkin, 1 apple tart, 1 apple cobbler, and pumpkin custard.

We baked pies on Wednesday and Thursday morning; roasted the turkey and ham Thursday afternoon; popped the stuffing, onions, roasted squash, and Brussels sprouts with mushrooms and shallots into the ovens while the meat rested and Andy made the gravy, Ian mashed the potatoes and Ruth plated the salads.

And then, we feasted.

By Sunday evening, it was just Tim and me in our quiet home. I found an orphaned green cabbage in the basement fridge and some tofu a week past its “use-by” date for a satisfying stir-fry with ginger, garlic and hot pepper. And then we retired early, so grateful for family and friends who came to participate and celebrate the joys of Living in Place.

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