(Sunday Paper, Year VI, Issue 48)

OK, first things first.

Seems to me like every year for this post-Thanksgiving post I put a picture of the turkey.

This year I kind of remembered that during the week, but on Thursday I forgot to take a picture of the turkey before we ate it.

So this year, instead of the nice-looking turkey we had for dinner on Thursday, you get the messy sandwich I had on Friday.

That sandwich was amazing, for what it’s worth.

But, second things second, I was thinking this week about Thanksgivings past and one in particular stood out when I was talking to Kathy about it.

We decided it must have been Thanksgiving 2006, when our oldest was a newborn.

Although, now that I think about it it could have been 2005, because I think we hosted Thanksgiving pretty early on - maybe our first Thanksgiving in this house?

Anyway, that’s not the point.

The point is - a lot of what we made that year for dinner we bought at the turkey farm.

And I got to thinking about that - because it seems insane to me now…but there was a turkey farm about a mile away from us here.

A TURKEY FARM!

This is not the only house on the former turkey farm property but as I was sitting in my car pulled over on the side of the road it’s the only house in the picture that I thought I was taking of more of the block. Oh well.

Even saying those words seems weird.

In the summers it was also an ice cream stand. Dangerously convenient.

But within a few years it closed and some of the land was torn down and new homes were built and unless you stop and think about it and take a picture like I did there on the right, you can easily forget about it.

And it can seem like a dream.

But we had a really great turkey and fixings one year from the turkey farm down the street.

Notes

*I don’t want to blow past this point: We hosted Thanksgiving this year and it was wonderful. I feel like a jerk when I say “we” hosted because I didn’t do anything. And I also feel like a jerk when I say I didn’t do anything but Kathy honest-to-goodness loves doing it and I am not a jerk and if she wanted help I’d help her. But she did an outstanding job this year. Everything was picture-perfect (though I neglected to take a picture) and delicious.

*Social media goings-on: I am going to be trying to drum up some mailbag support for a December mailbag post. So think up those questions. You can Like the Facebook page if you don’t already do that by clicking here, and you can follow me on Twitter here.

*Running Update: Kathy and our middle daughter ran the Turkey Trot (Framingham Thanksgiving Classic if we’re being specific) with me on Thursday morning. It was a nice way to start the day. I don’t think I’ve done a Thanksgiving morning run in more than a decade - I did one in Somerville with friends from work back in 2009 or so. I always intended to do one again but missed sign-ups or didn’t have enough motivation to…but I’m a runner now. No denying it.

*Speaking of which - Kevin and I finally pulled the trigger on a half-marathon. We’re signed up to run one in Wilmington, North Carolina in February. Kevin knows the area (and his [105-year-old!] grandfather still lives there) so it seemed like a good option. And February right now seems in that in-between of far away and super-close. Especially once the holidays blow on through.

*Bad news from the turkey trot (Framingham Thanksgiving Classic): I tried a few times to take a selfie of Kathy and me but I kept dropping my phone. (I am bad enough at maneuvering for selfies in the best of conditions. With a cold, numb hand it was darn near impossible.) Anyway, by the third drop a crack that was already in the screen got agitated and became much worse. So I have to live with that now.

*The 35 degrees on Thanksgiving morning was pretty ideal running weather. Ran in 30 and windy early in the week and that was too cold. Ran on Saturday afternoon hoping to catch some warmer sun but the wind was bitingly cold. But I’m getting the cold weather runs in, which is good.

*Since Thanksgiving was on November 25 this weekend was ripe for the Christmas light putting-up. I am happy with how it went. I had to do a couple of things differently this year but I like how it turned out. I will certainly share a picture before the next month is up.

*Is this the day I get the Super Mega Crossword? It could be! It didn’t come last week. So I think maybe it’s a Thanksgiving weekend thing. If not, though, it’ll DEFINITELY be next week. Very exciting.

*Composting is still going amazingly well. I love it. Ain’t no composting like the day after Thanksgiving composting, I’ll tell you that.

*This was a really lovely family weekend for us. I hope you had as nice a weekend as we did. Hard to believe we’re down to the last few weeks of the year.