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I hope you all had a nice weekend with your families! We had part of our crew (Todd, Paige, Stuart, Jamar) here at home, while another part of our crew (Alex, Mauricio, Bryce) couldn’t make it. It was a little bit of a quiet, bittersweet day for us since we just said goodbye to Chuck two weeks ago. But we were happy to see the kids and have a few days of relaxed togetherness.

We decided to go ahead and gather at Chuck/Pa-Pa’s house as we would have anyway, because first of all, he would have wanted that; and second of all, Thanksgiving was his favorite meal of all time. He looked forward to it every year, he hovered over all the cooking and asked how much longer, and he loved filling his plate with turkey, mushy stuffing (from the bird for him, always!), mashed potatoes, and steaming hot gravy.

It was so nice to cook at Chuck’s. I could honestly feel his presence, almost as if he was sitting in his chair in the living room—and I kept the eating schedule right on target, because Pa-Pa was always the happiest if the food was ready ten minutes early. 😂

Again, almost as if Chuck was there encouraging me, I churned out a top three batch of gravy! It was dark, delicious, giblety, and I still have a little left and am considering heating it up and pouring it over scrambled eggs this morning. Ha!

Ladd was on turkey carving duty. Here’s a funny piece of trivia: Guess who taught Ladd how to carve turkey correctly? I’ll give you a hint: His initials are BF and I beat him in a Thanksgiving Throwdown many years ago.

You are correct! It was Bobby Flay, and he actually “taught” Ladd how to carve the turkey by inadvertently poking fun at people who carve turkey incorrectly, which is how Ladd used to carve turkey. But Bobby showed him the light and it’s been smooth sailing (smooth carving) ever since.

It was a little quiet being in Chuck’s kitchen. But we used Nan’s favorite platter and it actually felt very right to be there. It would have been sadder had we not been there.

We had a good day together! It was good to see the kids, and it was great knowing that Alex, Mauricio and Bryce spent their day together. (Actually, they spent their evening together. They didn’t eat until after 10 pm on Thursday! Haha, different strokes for different families.) Not pictured: Elliot, my nephew, who was napping after a big plate of turkey!

It was also great to see Stu, who won the prize for the craziest top, which is usually my department! But speaking of tops, I actually brought a nice top to change into after I did the cooking, but I never had a single second to step away from the kitchen. And who really cares what one wears on Thanksgiving, anyway? It’s all about the gravy, baby.

Again, it was a bittersweet day. A little sad, a little quiet, but we still laughed and had a blast together.

And went back for seconds!