Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Rome! Kevin and I have a great deal to be thankful for this year (each other, for example), and so we welcomed this holiday very fittingly with a dish that every American elementary school student is told was at the First Thanksgiving, eaten by the pilgrims wearing funny hats. The popcorn pictured was popped by none other than yours truly, Mrs. Keiser, herself. It goes down in Keiser (and Fenton) Family history as the first batch of real (non-microwave) popcorn I have ever popped. And I did it on the stove - no Stir-Crazy. Having a glass lid for the pan helped. A lot. In any case, it was truly an historic occasion (worthy of the "an" in front of historic - a point of style I don't really understand).

In other points of history and Keiser family happenings, we acquired a space heater today, and it's doing a lovely job heating our eating-and-computering space at the moment. Ah, the blissful feeling of not-freezing air on my feet! It's also possible for me to type quite a bit faster when my fingers are not stiff from the cold.

Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day proper (I'm writing this on Thanksgiving Eve), Kevin and I will be heading over to the North American College, where the American diocesan seminarians live, for their annual Thanksgiving Mass & Dinner. We'll be sitting at the Illinois table, since I'm from Michigan and Kevin is from Kansas. Clear? (Okay, we'll be there because an Illinois seminarian invited us.) The highlight of the dinner will (I assume) be the presentation of the pumpkin pies.

While the pie itself is enough of a highlight for me, its entry is further emphasized every year by some sort of song/reading/skit/poem/other creative endeavor. Last year, it was a very amusing rendition of the song "Pumpkin Pie," (which you probably know better, with different words, as "American Pie.") Another year, it was a reading of a section of Gaudium et Spes with "pumpkin pie" substituted for the word "man": "The dichotomy affecting the modern world is, in fact, a symptom of the deeper dichotomy that is in pumpkin pie itself. It is the meeting point of many conflicting forces. In its condition as a created being, it is subject to a thousand shortcomings, but feels untrammeled in its inclinations and destined for a higher form of life...And so it feels itself divided...."

Enjoy your turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and yes, Pumpkin Pie, and don't forget to thank the One who is responsible for it all! (And say hi to the good ol' U.S.of A. for us if you're there.)