Thanksgiving

Since going to Franciscan, I have never been able to make it home during a semester, and definitely not at Thanksgiving time. This year, I found a ride to Northern Virginia, but that would have been a four hour ride to get me, and a four hour ride back by some poor memeber of my family, and since Dad had surgery recently and cannot drive, the whole thing would have been extremely difficult to manage. My first year, I went to Allison's farm in Ohio, and my second year, I went to Faith's house in Connecticut. This time around, having a shortage of freinds I could go home with, I decided to stay in the dorm and be the hall supervisor. Funny living in a dorm that normaly holds 170 other women when it has only 8 in it. Actually, I didn't really see any of the other people, so they may not have been there at all! I never would have known. Some of you may know about my overactive imagination...yes. All I could think was "someone could break in here, kill me, and no one would know until Sunday." My mind does strange things late at night, and that was one of them.

Thanksgiving dinner was spent at the Dougherty's farm in Toronto. They've got about 17 acres of land, but utilize a bit more than that. Their driveway is sort of like a rollercoaster, in that you drive literally off a cliff, which turns into their driveway. I've been down it many times before, but never driving. My heart lept into my throat as dear Audrey screeched from the backseat. In any case, we arived none the worse for wear. Their kitchen is one of my favorite things about the solid old farm house, for Mrs. Dougherty has pots and pans hanging from the walls and ceilings, plenty of counter space, and cabinets with green paint that have be authentically antiqueated. The wood floors go throughout the entire house, including the kitchen. An extra table had been brought in to the dining area (which opens into a living room) for extra space. The youngest children had made place cards for everyone. Mine (done by the darling Masha) was of a cat riding on a dog's back with a very large bunny next to them. I though some sort of battle was going on, but Masha quickly set that idea straight. Dinner reminded me of home, with one end of the table constantly calling for things at the other end. Mrs. Dougherty's answer to this problem is to have two dishes of certain things. Amid the candle light, sparkling grape juice, and water spills, dinner was very entertaining and great fun.

After dinner, some of us sang songs as Michael (another freind from school) played the piano. All us children went down to the pasture, and watched two of the boys try to ride the steer, who bucked like mad. The youngest boy rode around on the miniature horse, all dressed up in his chaps, pistol, leather vest, cowboy hat, jeans, flannel shirt, and boots. The girls (Audrey, Masha, Anna, and I) went walking by ourselves and had a grand old girly time. Going back up to the house, the little girls decided to give Audrey and I a tour, and we ended up in the boys' room on one of the beds reading stories. Great fun!

I think I know all the poker hands now after playing Tivoli, or Tripoli, or whatever it was. Funny how much more entertaining a game can be with a small child on one's lap...or someone else's. You get to laugh while they struggle to keep their cards from being seen. After some wonderful pumkin pie, topped with whipped cream from their own cow, the evening decended into tea and coffee, conversation, and games of chess. Gathered around the circle in the living room haveing such pleasant conversation, I began to see that televisions are entirely unnecesary in the family room. Most people have their living room set up with the couch facing the TV, but the Dougherty's couch is facing more chairs, so they are all arranged in a circle around a coffee table. Conversation does not lack for interest. We turned a conversation about fairy tales into a discussion of spirituality, Christ as the "Knight in Shining Armor," the qualities of good fiction, Crime and Punishment, and the purpose of literature in general.

As usual, in good family form, I entirely forgot a camera. However, more thoughts on the content of that discussion will ensue...eventually.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!