Savoring family life

The last two weeks have been in service of family—feeding, escorting, enjoying, cleaning up after. The reward is Thanksgiving Day.

Cooking begins at 9:00 a.m., sautéing onions for the dressing, then cleaning the bird and stuffing it. There is a squiggly wire thing with a sharp point that neatly sews the cavity after it is filled—no need to thread a needle with white thread. My eyes are not as sharp as that task demands.

Cooking smells drift into the back bedrooms but fail to rouse the teenagers sleeping there. They have been up most of the night with their West Coast cousins, savoring the brief, annual reunion, saying things that need to be said in person rather than on Facebook, and exploring the city together, from Times Square to the East Village.

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