Happy Vegetarian Thanksgiving--Carve the Walnut Cheddar Loaf

I love Thanksgiving for the day-off it provides to count our blessings, and of course having a warm house is one.  This Thanksgiving I received the following link, for which I'm thankful.


http://www.draftfcb.com/holiday2011/  

When you click on it, you can put in your address and see your home in a snow globe.  Then you're reminded that some people don't have one--a message from the Coalition for the Homeless . 

Yesterday I wanted to focus on a memoir I'm writing about my mother, but I made the mistake of checking my e-mail, and it was irresistible.  It was also almost irresistible to put in addresses of previous homes and homes of friends and watch them come up.  I got myself to stop, but it was hard and made possible only through strong love for my mother.  So now I turn it over to you--the one person who reads this blog if you do.

Today my brother David, my nephew Karl, and I are having an all-vegetable Thanksgiving dinner at my sister Suzy's house in Oakland.  (Kathy and her brother are going to Pasadena to spend the day with their 95-year-old aunt.)  We've eaten out with our brother in the past to give him the meat option, but he's showing less interest in meat these days and eats meatless meals very enthusiastically, and even our meat-eating nephew Karl says he can go without meat for a meal--even this meal, associated with that hapless bird.  (Did I mention the letter to the editor that suggested providing vegetables for the feed-the-needy programs?)

Because David lives in a 24-hour locked facility where his life is safe but not exactly joyous, we indulge him in some ways.  For example, a Thanksgiving tradition has been to let him see the gigantic edition of the SF Chronicle with all the ads so he can circle what he wants for his December 10th birthday, so I'll be lugging that over.  But I won't be participating in ANY buying on Black Friday.  I love the movement that started in 1992, Buy Nothing Day.  

This year I'm thankful for the way the election turned out in most cases...for the new plants that have just been added to the center space on 19th Avenue...for the wonderful environmental science course I'm taking and for our passionate instructor Peggy...for the memoir-writing course online at UCLA and for Liza Monroy and all the other insightful readers and writers...For Javier, now in Costa Rica texting...for good health...for wonderful friends and family...