1. I can't remember all the various ways I've celebrated Thanksgiving over the past decades. I have participated in several traditional Woolum family Thanksgiving dinners, whether in our home or as part of the extended Turnbow family Thanksgivings many years ago. I've had at least three vegetarian Thanksgiving Days, one of them at a Hare Krishna vegan restaurant in Eugene (followed by going to the movie Dazed and Confused). I've enjoyed Thanksgiving with family in Kettle Falls, the Tri-Cities, as well as in Kellogg. One year a student invited me to her family's Thanksgiving.
Another year I joined a table of others without family in Eugene at Sparky's house. A couple from St. Mary's Episcopal Church invited me to dinner with their family another year. I've fixed myself dinner to eat alone, spent one Thanksgiving Day in our Eugene home with Molly and Olivia, and another year I drove to the Three Rivers Casino for a Thanksgiving buffet. One year Debbie was sick on Thanksgiving Day so Molly, Patrick, and I went to a movie and we had a turkey dinner a day or two later. When I was spending a lot of time in the house alone during the pandemic, Carol and Paul delivered a dinner to me at home.
My point is that I can't really say that I've ever settled into a particular Thanksgiving tradition for having dinner.
I've been flexible and I've enjoyed all of these various ways of celebrating the holiday a lot. (I've left some of the variety out of this post for no good reason.)
2. So, I've known for quite a while that this year Carol and Paul would be celebrating Thanksgiving with their kids and Paul's family in Meridian.
Some time in the past month, Debbie decided very wisely to extend her visit to Adrienne's home and so she celebrated Thanksgiving today with Patrick and Meagan, Molly and her family, Adrienne and her two children, and Adrienne, Patrick, and Molly's father, John at Adrienne's home.
That left Christy and me to decide how we wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving on our own.
Well, in my mind, only one option existed!
3. We went to The Lounge.
Every year, Cas and Tracy host a Thanksgiving buffet at The Lounge, open to all comers. Tracy cooks up a storm and so we had available to us (I can't list everything) turkey, ham, gravy, mashed potatoes, a vegetable bake, green beens, salads, pies and other desserts, and more.
Christy and I plopped ourselves at the bar, each ordered a drink, yakked with each other, with Harley and Candy, a couple who just randomly dropped in from Superior, MT, with Cas and Tracy, and others.
It was all very mellow, relaxed. People arrived individually and in groups. As some people arrived, others left. The buffet room was never crowded and I enjoyed how conversations created a murmur throughout The Lounge, meaning it wasn't noisy.
The buffet was generous, and the food was delicious.
It was a superb way to celebrate Thanksgiving with other people around town, to do so with Christy, and to add to the variety of Thanksgiving celebrations I've enjoyed so much over the years.
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