Usually the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is full of hustle
and bustle in our convent kitchen.
Different sisters sign up to make some particular item for the meal
itself. In years past I have
volunteered to make the turkeys.
We used to do four
twenty-four pounders back when we had 50 – 60 sisters here. Have you ever tried to stick 24
pounds of fowl into an oven bag?
It is extremely hard to do by yourself.
I would holler at whoever happened to be passing by to help out. This year, however, a friend of the
community donated smoked turkeys for our meal. We also had the usual traditional meal: mashed potatoes, cranberries, stuffing
and of course pumpkin or pecan pie. I am grateful that God has called so many
women who are good cooks to our monastery!
Some of the sisters watch the Macy’s parade in the morning
and football in the afternoon.
Probably a good many of us took a nap sometime between doing dishes and
Vespers. You may have heard
that eating turkey makes you sleepy because it contains the amino acid
L-Tryptophan. I must admit
it’s very handy in our cyber age to be able to ‘google’ things to see if they
are accurate or not. I’m not
sure I would have sauntered over to the local library to check into that. My query produced an article that says turkey
has no more tryptophan than other foul and slightly less than chicken. When was the last time you ate a
chicken breast and felt sluggish?
So, another myth bites the dust.
 |
| Sisters on Black Friday hurrying into chapel instead of the stores! |
Do we go shopping on Black Friday? Are you kidding?
One would have to be nuts to go shopping on Black Friday! Every Friday (and for that matter, every day) is black for us, it’s the
color of our ‘habits!’
I
just read on nbcnews.com where a record 247 million shoppers opened their
wallets this weekend. Online
shopping on Black Friday topped 1 billion dollars. Sadly, stores are now opting to be open on Thanksgiving instead
of waiting for Friday for their sales. It’s when
I read this stuff that I am especially glad I live in a monastery or I might be
caught up in that same nonsense. In the future is Thanksgiving dinner just going to be what you drop in for between your shopping trips to the stores?
The Friday after Thanksgiving is always a leisure day at our
place. So my black Friday
consisted of a nice relaxing morning after Lauds and Mass and then I watched my
Nebraska football team beat Iowa.
(It would have been a black Friday indeed if they had lost!) I followed that with a walk in the
brisk air (the wind chill was around 15 degrees) that afternoon with one of my
sisters. Now I tell you, does that
not beat getting up before the crack of dawn to go stand in line with other
people at your local Wal-Mart?
Lest I forget, one of the best things about the Friday after
Thanksgiving is the left-overs!
One of the best things about Thanksgiving is that it means
Advent is just around the corner.
Advent has become my favorite liturgical season. I especially love the readings from Isaiah in the liturgies. They are full of hope which is something our world needs these days!
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