Greetings on Thanksgiving Day 2015

Prior to today, I dug through stacks of photos looking for one particular shot of a turkey standing on a hill outside the window of my room in Patzcuaro one year.

He was a GRAND turkey with a "Gobble, gobble, gobble" sound that made me chuckle just at the sound.

Well, I chuckled for about an hour.  He never stopped.  Especially when he was going at 4AM one night!
Who knew that turkeys gobbled that much.  Certainly not me because I had never been that close to a turkey for that long of a period of time in my life.

The next time I stayed at that hotel I was traveling with my friends Ron and Fred.  I made sure to get a room NOT in the back where the turkey had been just in case it was still alive.  However, by some strange coincidence, Ron and Fred got that room. 

They asked me to come look out their window and what to my wondering eyes did appear?  About ten turkeys!  It did not take long for them to change rooms.  We all chuckled.

Turkey is the national dish in Guatemala.  They prepare it all kinds of ways.  I loved every morsel as turkey is one of the foods that I cook often and eat often.  It is prepared quite a bit in Mexico as well, but not nearly like it is in Guatemala.

I'm able to write this blog today because I'm NOT cooking the Thanksgiving meal.  It seems so strange!

For so many years it was a marathon of baking, cooking, prepping and attempting to get it all out and ready to serve at the same time.  Somehow it always worked.  It was easy to do twenty years ago - even for 20 people or more.  But now, today, without an oven, I can plead that it is not possible any more for me to do the whole thing.

Luckily all I've had to do is bake a pecan pie and a corn souffle' to take to Thanksgiving dinner later this afternoon.  In the past, I would still be in my flannel jammies, Granny slippers and a heavy robe because it all used to start at about 6AM so it would be ready by 2PM.  I feel like a "lady of leisure" today.........kinda nice.

However, in the midst of this, I'm moving tomorrow!   Only across the garden path, don't panic!  It's amazing how much there is to move so I can stay here til December 26th in the guest house, then change to summer clothes and head directly for the beach for two months.  Being gone for three months is daunting even though I wanted to do this.  Obviously I did not think out all the ramifications.

Blog readers Shelagh and husband Peter arrive Tuesday night to stay in my house.  I can assure you and them that the house is spotless.  It's interesting what happens when company is coming!

Then after I leave for the beach, the new tenant, Darcy, arrives to live in the guest house for 2016.  It too has gotten a bit of spiffing done along with getting pricing requested by Darcy to install upper and lower cabinets in the kitchen along with a small island.  In addition, she is having a large closet built in the bedroom upstairs.
Hopefully I can get that accomplished before her arrival.

I will be SO SO ready to get to the beach where no one can reach me.  Ha!  Yup,  I'll only go into town about once a week to check emails as where I'm staying there is no internet, phone or TV.  It is definitely a break from the world!  Woo hoo.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!  I would say how grateful I am for everything today, but I'm grateful EVERY day for my life, my family and all of my friends.