We had a quiet Thanksgiving Day. There was no hustling about the kitchen, juggling several dishes around the roasting turkey in the oven. Perfect calm and the lingering aroma of potato pancakes made for breakfast filled the air that morning. Was it due to superior planning, early preparations, and military discipline in marshalling the family to assigned roles, you might ask? No, our Thanksgiving iceberg didn't thaw enough to roast it then.

As mentioned in an earlier chapter, my brother makes a yearly hunt for the cheapest turkey to be found, and then selects the largest bird he can find in the freezer case. It is a holiday tradition that I have tried to discourage, but he insists on it. This year he bought a 20.98 pound frozen turkey on late Sunday afternoon, and even after being left in the refrigerator all week it had only gotten to the stage where it felt like a rubber covered brick on Thanksgiving morning. Fortunately, he heeded my request to buy a backup frozen turkey gravy and sliced meat entree, which became our main course. The cats got a taste and a promise of more to come.

This Sunday morning, the bird was finally flabby enough to get it into the oven. The cats are already on the alert and staying close to the kitchen. Mischief has tried to tip over the wastebasket to get to the wrappings. Mom is encouraging the frenzy by telling the cats about the turkey in the oven at frequent intervals. Steve is sleeping late. The usual turkey roasting traditions are in full swing. We will have roast turkey in a few hours, for which I am thankful. Many people aren't that lucky.

Baby's new parts came, but I had a new dilemma. When the bolts bent, they bent far enough that I am going to have to cut them off. The little metal saw I had isn't getting anywhere on them. I'm going to have to go to a hardware store and ask what to use for that. In the meantime, I discovered that I could tip Baby over so that the barrel is resting on the endpiece rims and roll it on the ground. That is good enough to mix another load of compostable materials until I can find a hardware store that has the necessary tool to cut the bolts, and I am thankful for that.

We have a new addition to the composting equipment, a crosscut shredder I found on sale at a local discount store. It is a cheap version of the office paper shredders, but it is reducing paper to little pieces which hopefully will end the compost constipation once and for all. The torn up squares did help, but I kept finding clumps of them at the outer edges of the load which did not tumble into the center. This little shredder, which I have been calling Snarly for the sound it makes, can only be run continuously for about ten minutes so it won't overheat, but in that time it can fill its fairly large wastebasket with shreds. That is enough material to top off a tumbler daily during that first hungry period, and a few basketfuls will fill the tumblers from an emptied state when mixed with some weeds and kitchen scraps. That is going to save me lots of work and time, and for that I am thankful.

We had the first heavy frosts this week and the tomatoes died in the night. They made lots of tomatoes before they did, mostly small Roma tomatoes but a few large Delicious tomatoes, so I had plenty for salads in the weeks that they were producing heavily and I am thankful for that. There are still greens growing in the garden and one broccoli plant has a small head growing, so the garden isn't quite done for the year.

The crafting is coming along as usual. I'm more than halfway through knitting a second scarf for the second project. I've got the tutorial pages for the knitting class planned and just have to get the pictures taken and the captions written up. The quilts are still waiting, but I need to get this knitting stuff done first because of the class deadline. I've got some ideas for a few more projects that ought to be enough to get them started on knitting well enough to proceed on their own, and for that I am thankful.

I got a little electronic organizer this week. I was lured in by the promise of one for $5, but they were sold out by the time I got to the store. I got a $10 one that had the simple features I wanted and have been punching in my reminder notes and scheduled events. It is supposed to beep its alarms even if it is turned off. I have too much to do to remember it all and I keep losing my little notes, so I will be very thankful if this gadget helps to keep everything straight.

That store was a madhouse of customers, just like the other stores filled with eager shoppers. The Christmas shopping season is really taking off this year. I can't remember a season where the stores were so crowded this early. Our city has had a campaign encouraging people to shop locally to make up for the business shortfall in the month following the big storm this summer, but the news reports indicate that there are also lots of shoppers out in other cities as well. People are feeling good about the war and the tax cut, no matter what the Democrats keep saying, and they are loosening the purse strings at the after-Thanksgiving sales. It should be interesting to see if the trend continues through Christmas. For that the business owners will be very thankful, as will the people looking for jobs.