Hallowgiving

As a child of divorce, I spent many a holiday being shuffled back and forth between houses as I celebrated with both sides of my family. Though I loved seeing everyone, I often found myself stressed out and spread a little too thin. Somewhere around the age of 25 I decided something had to change. I was tired of running all over God's half acre trying to see everyone and then feeling guilty about how long I stayed at one house or another.

A lot of my friends were living in Denver but had family in other citites. Many of them stayed in Denver for Thanksgiving and went home at Christmas. So in 2001 I decided to have everyone over and I would cook Thanksgiving for all of us. I was in charge of the bird and everyone brought a side dish, or dessert or, most importantly, liquor. That first year turned into a big party that we eventually took to a dive bar where we drank even more and played pool and sang along with Bob Seger and Motley Crue on the jukebox. It was great.

This year, I'm heading to Sundance, Wyoming to see my grandparents so I won't be here to cook. I was getting sad about the fact that we wouldn't all be together because it's tradition and damnit, I like tradition. I found out that Meghan and Tim were coming in from PA. for a weekend and I decided we would all get together and celebrate Thanksgiving early...like by a month. And so, Hallowgiving was born.

After my run Saturday morning, I wrestled the 20lb turkey into the oven and got ready for everyone to show up. Soon, every square inch of counter space I have was occupied by sweet potato souffle, green been casserole, artichoke heart dip, stuffed mushrooms, focaccia stuffing, cheddar mashed potatoes, rolls, olive plate, wines, chocolate pie, and pumpkin pie. The boys grabbed a few Coors Lights and watched some football while the girls grabbed some wine and chatted in the kitchen.



Meghan, KC, Shawnie, Molly, Tamara

Rosie and the most excellent sweet potato souffle

I stood in my kitchen and listened to the sounds of my full house. I am always at optimum happiness when I have a house full of people I love. And seriously, I love these people. I love that despite the fact that it was almost 70 degrees out yesterday, no one said a word about how hot the house was from having the oven on all day. I love the fact that my friends were more than happy to sit at three card tables in my basement because my dining room is only big enough to sit four. I love the fact that no one thought it was strange that I wanted to have Thanksgiving dinner three days before Halloween...or that I named the event Hallowgiving.

Fine dining in the basement

I love that Shawn and Ryan brought McKayla in her monkey costume so we'd have a little Halloween in Hallowgiving.

Shawnie and Monkey McKayla

I love that my friends are the kind who die laughing when Barley starts munching on a piece of turkey...that was still attached to the bird...on the platter.


I love that my friends tell the funniest stories and that when those funny stories are told, Meghan is always bound to laugh until she cries.

I love that we passed McKayla around the entire table much in the same manner we passed the stuffing just because we each wanted some baby time.

As we've gotten older, many of us have married (yours truly is one of the exceptions) and are now starting our own families. I know we won't always get together for Thanksgiving anymore and that fact would probably make me sad if I didn't have the kind of friends that I have. Because I know if I wanted to have Thanksgiving in June, they'd probably all be there with their side dishes and side-splitting stories. And I love that.