This was my all of our first Thanksgiving without my mom around. We new it was going to be a very busy weekend and rather than have dad drive all the way to NJ for one day we loaded up the car for us to go there instead. Dad has always been the Thanksgiving cook, and in 40 years of holidays the only person he’s ever let in the kitchen to help him (to any extent) has been me. Somehow I know how he works, what he needs done, and when to get out of the way (most of the time) so he only finds it mildly irritating to have me in the kitchen . This year we had all kinds of new dishes ranging from a Wild rice and cranberry/apple dressing to molasses and horseradish candied sweet potatoes All told it takes about 20 man hours in the kitchen to make dinner and another 5 to clean up afterward. Here is all of us (except me) around the table.
and here’s the fresh mince pie that I made (dad made the filling and it was his favorite part of the meal
On friday it was off to Philadelphia for the Eastern regional Oireachtas (pronounced Oractas). There were thousands of girls, boys and parents there. And it was quite an experience.