Saturday, November 28, 2009

Genocide Feast

Thought I would share from photos from our Thanksgiving get together at my mom's house before talking about "genocide feast".

I got the hard job - whipping the cream for the pie! It was so tiring that my mom did ALL the rest of the cooking ;)

After a brief rest, from whipping the cream, I was able to cream the butter and the brown sugar together to make a topping for the sweet potatoes. Oh, and later I was enlisted to peel potatoes - what an exaughsting day.LOL

My mom had her Christmas decorates in place. Here's Jerry watching football and Eddie watching squirrels.

Then Eddie made his way to my MIL Marge for some pats & scaratches. Daisey was devistated that she was not "the chosen one" this year. We could hear her howling as we got inthe car to leave.

Eddie was so good while we ate. He laid under the table and didn't beg.

Jerry's coworker Joan and her husband Jerry joined us. You can see my mom at the head of the table and Herry's arm at the other end of the table. Let's see, we had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry-mandarin oragne relish, white beans, corn bread, chessy biscuits, orzo, brocolli, tomato & cucumber salad, a chinese salad (brought by Joan and very tasty), and corn we got from the farms last summer.

Eddie got the scraps from everyone's plate. That made him very happy and being the only dog inthe condo, he ate slowly and savored each bite.

When we got home we fed Daisey & Roxy a little leftovers and before long they were all down for a turkey nap!

Now, the genocide feast. On a rat terrier social networking group that I frequent someone used these words to quote what his son's friends call Thanksgiving. The words stuck with me all night after I read them. I am not so sure why this has impacted me but it has. I read an earlier blog post by a friend who was surprized when her preschooler came home with a constructon paper pilgram hat and her friend a paper indiana headdress. Her comment that she was surprized they still do the pilgrim thing in school probably started me thinking and then the genocide comment just added to it. Oh, and there was the PETA ad I heard on NPR about the cruel conditions inw hich turkeys are raised for food.

To be honest this did take a little shine off my Thanksgiving. I've always looked at the celebration as a celebration of friends, family, and the blessings in our lives whether they be good crops, riches, good health, etc. I've hadn't considered any colateral damage. For me, the images of pilgrims, Native Americans, cornucopias,etc. have been more visual representations (much like Santa is for Christmas) and not so much a part of my celebration. It's nice to have something to think about........ and now I have REALLY confused someone from Australia.

2 comments:

FoxyMoron said...

No that bit I totally get. We have similar issues with our own indigenous people.

But I like the thoughtful and balanced way you look at things.

Looks like a lovely get together, you're lucky to have your mums close by and they're lucky to have you. Love the dogs and their turkey nap too.

And I am thinking we might get a free range turkey for Christmas this year.

CiNdEe's GaRdEn said...

I love Thanksgiving and don't think about the raising of the turkeys etc. I know its probably not the best conditions but they sure taste good(-:
Jack loved his leftovers too! He was in heaven!!!! He is still enjoying them(-: