Turkey of a Day

Some people who come from split families wind up celebrating two Thanksgivings. Yesterday, Leina somehow found herself eating turkey almost nonstop from 2:00 until midnight, at three different parties. And her parents stayed together their entire lives.

But before she could eat any turkey, she had to make some of the coconut creme pudding mentioned the other day in this space. Leina, however, had some difficulty with the recipe, but astutely woke up at 6:45 on Thanksgiving to start making it, with a soothsayer's sixth sense that something would go wrong. She fulfilled her prophecy and managed to screw up the recipe twice, starting over each time, until the third time was the charm. Then she had to drive someone somewhere before going home and taking a nap.

Then she went to Charles' parents' house for a meal, which was nice, and then drove somewhere else on the peninsula to have a Thanksgiving with The Poker Friends. It is surprising that The Poker Friends have not been mentioned here before, but the short is that they, for many years, played poker with her father, and became family friends. And Leina visits them every few months. What is confusing is that there are two unrelated sets of Poker Friends. Perhaps Leina's father played in two different poker games, and forged lifelong friendships in each. Poker can be a very bonding activity.

Anyways, she drove out to visit The Poker Friends and spend some time with them, and only ate a little bit of turkey because Auntie was making a big feast up in Marin for the family. So Charles (who had been by her side since noon) and she made the familiar drive from the southbay to the northbay, and arrived at Auntie's ready to eat one last time. The turkey, alas, did not go into the oven until 6:00, and one will find that when the turkey goes in the oven late, it comes out late: 11:30, the latest Leina had ever eaten a Thanksgiving turkey.

On the bright side, all turkeys were tasty, she didn't have to work the next day, and she managed to make her appearances at each location on time and see everyone she wanted to.