‘Dear Abbey, I Have a Question for Y’All’
A guest came to my house on Thanksgiving with containers for take-out!
With the monstrous turkey cooling on the counter next to me, I worked to extract the drippings out of a pot so as not to suck fat into my gravy pump. Across from me, waiting for a glass of wine, was one of our guests who came to “help.”
This guest is an acquaintance of ours from the community of Russians who have moved to Portugal since the war. My wife sees her at group lunches, and occasionally, her three kids play with our son, but the friendship is not much closer than that.
“My husband will bring containers for us to take meat home. I hope that is okay?” She said, causing me almost to drop my gravy pump.
My turkey was a record-breaking monster. It was the largest I had ever prepared. Coming in at 32 pounds, I struggled to carry home from the corner meat store. Twenty-nine guests were on their way, and I have to admit the request from someone who didn’t even offer my wife a cup of tea or coffee when she was invited over with my son to check out their hamsters created a minor irritation for me. It hung there until the guests started pouring in, and then I forgot about it.
The next day, I joked with my wife while carving the rest of the turkey and…
