This is a long blog of how I came about inviting you to Bruce and Ronda's Thanksgiving dinner. We are eating at 5pm. Our treat. You can bring a covered dish and if you want something beside coffee, tea or soda please bring your own. Nothing will be sold that day.
My mom had huge Thanksgiving dinners. We had aunts and uncles and friends and neighbors. My mom would put the food wherever she had room. On the stove, on the sink, on the back porch. We only had four rooms and a back porch and I think the biggest room was 8 X 10. That's small enough for the six of us but then we would add many many more people for dinner. You would eat standing up, it didn't matter. Then people would play cards or sit and talk.
My mom died when she was 55 and I was 26. She died in the fall and we all tried to throw the same exact dinner together that my mom had always made. Well, as you know, it was a disaster. As the years went on Thanksgiving got smaller and smaller. With divorces, marriages, deaths and people just going their different ways.
The last few years the holiday has gotten smaller and to top it off Chris (my son) and Bethany (his delightful girlfriend) were vegetarians. So last year we cooked a big turkey and a different meal for them. I am not complaining, I am very grateful for all the things I have in life but I really like that big Thanksgiving dinner. It's actually my favorite holidays since no gifts are exchanged and it is all about fellowship.
Hence brings in the thinking of how I was going to change all that this year. We have options. Go to my brothers, go to Bret's parents in PA, go to my sisters down in Kentucky. That's not what I had in mind. Go to a food kitchen and help. Okay that can work. So I find out they can really use my help more in January, so that is when we will make 160 grilled cheese and tomato soups instead of Thanksgiving dinner.
For many years my friend Audrey, who owns Mullanes (which is now gone but not forgotten) would open her doors and cook a Thanksgiving dinner. Anyone and everyone was invited. I always loved that idea but never really thought about doing it. So when I was talking to my friend Bruce (which also found himself in the same situation as me) we decided we would do the same as Audrey had done for all those years.
Bruce and I are cooking Thanksgiving dinner and you are invited. Yes, you the person reading this. If you don't have anywhere to go or if your family is small then please join us. We are cooking turkey, stuffing, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, yams, scallop oysters, cranberry sauce and rolls. We ask you to bring a covered dish and a beverage if you don't want coffee, tea or soda. Arnold's is closed that day and no sales will be made. We are eating at 5pm and will ask everyone to help with the clean up. We will have the TV on sports, cornhole in the courtyard, cards, scrabble and whatever games we can find.
I just ask that you email me at info@arnoldsbarandgrill to let me know you are coming. We want to make sure we cook enough turkey!
