I cooked a walloping 20 lb turkey today for my tiny family Thanksgiving. Despite frantically trying to defrost it yesterday and receiving a demeaning phone call this morning from my mother inquiring if I had remembered to remove the neck AND the giblet packet. (This is coming from a woman who still cannot make gravy or a cream sauce on her own. And Okay, yes, just once I did leave the giblets in the turkey before I baked it.Does that have to follow me through my ENTIRE adult life along with those baby pictures of me naked in the tub? Geesh.) Due to Grams' heart condition, my Mom and step father's need for a low cholesterol diet and my desire for a lower fat dinner, our Thanksgiving feast was modified but tasty and satisfying none the less. Moroccan carrots were my hit dish. With cinnamon and cumin, they complimented Grams homemade craberry relish nicely. Between bastings, I spent some time outside in the yard. I raked up all the leaves in the driveway and front yard. For a yard with only one tree, it hardly seems fair all those leaves from other people's trees end up for me to rake. Luckily, raking makes me happy. And today, this amazing thing happened. Amongst all the brown oak leaves peppered with smaller red maples, I found one perfect fuschia rose petal. That made me smile. Even though, by this point my back hurt and it had started to rain. I try to think of a few things to be thankful for each Thanksgiving. Here's a few random thoughts. *I'm thankful that I'm getting better at being alone but still have hope for finding a boyfriend that isn't imaginary for a change. * After recently reading my high school journal, I'm thankful I've been able to move past much of the resentment I held then and improved the relationship that pained me most. * While watching Grams swivel her hips to a Roy Eldridge tune sung by Anita O'Day, I was so grateful she is here for me to ask her if she remembered the song. I mused it must have been cool to be a white girl that hung out with the cool black musicians in that era. She smiled, "It was." Is she the raddest, or what? * I'm ever so thankful for the ever changing soudtrack of my life. Which currently consists of an awful lot of The Greenhornes, Blanche, Anita O'Day and the Damnwells. * Talking to the far flung-Dope, ME, Crabtree and local friends-Mouse, Talulah and JPO over the past day or so to wish them holiday cheer.