If it is the morning of Thanksgiving, I can tell you assuredly, that all the gifts have been wrapped and bundled by families, the Christmas Cards and newsletters have been posted and so have any parcels of Christmas gifts. The house has also seen a sudden burst of extra attention and cleaning, because a new adventure is underfoot; the Thanksgiving meal. I think that this may have been our all-time record for attendance as we were expecting thirty-six for dinner and the logistics of setting up extra tables and chairs where ever there was room.

My Bride excels at this and she gets all pumped up. I mean, I still have to read the paper first and get all of the shopping ads in one location for the Black Friday shoppers to study and to make notes,  and dispose of the paper after I had read it. She on the other hand had already started at eight in the morning getting everything going. She was getting new storage places ready in the refrigerators, getting beverages cooling and doing as much prep work for dishes that had to be done closer to dinner time. She also started arranging the appetizers on the table in the breakfast room of assorted cheeses and crackers, vegetables and dips until it was time for dinner. When I wasn’t needed, I tried to stay out of harm’s way, though I did get my hand on my butcher knife and put a new sharp edge on it, in anticipation of all the carving that lay in store for me.

I took the liberty to announce on Facebook that the wine was opened and the holiday had officially begun around twelve in the afternoon. It was at this time that her one sister from Louisville and her daughter came over and began making some desserts and to help with the dinner. I on the other hand began opening wine. We started off with a couple of bottles from Costco for some easy drinking and these went through the evening as well. There was our go-to Kirkland Signature Sonoma County Chardonnay 2014 which I have mentioned several times. There was also the Kirkland Signature Asolo Prosecco Superiore DOCG NV that I have also mentioned before, made in the proper area with all of the ratings required and having the Prosecco/Glera grape. As the early guests came in we opened more wines for the women, as the men were going for beer and watching the Detroit Lions, so the early wines of the day were more easy drinking and sweeter wines. I really did not have a chance to try some of them, but I have to presume from the empty bottles that they were a hit by the end of the evening. There was a popular price bottle of Chardonnay that my Brother-in-Law had discovered in Louisville that he thought had merit, not craftsmanship per se, but nothing objectionable. The Cardiff Vineyards Chardonnay 2015 was a California wine, so the fruit came from across the state and I am sure that it was done in Stainless Steel. There was Johan Klauss Liebfraumilch 2014, a Qualitatswein from the Rheinhessen in Germany. Liebfraumilch is one of the most popular wines and one of the most recognizable as well. The last of the early wines that was opened was Bartenura Wines Moscato Provincia di Pavia IGT 2014 from Italy. Since Moscato is such a hot and popular grape varietal, it is grown in other areas of Italy and hence the IGT designation as this grape is not a designated grape for Pavia, but it still sells and that is very important to the wineries. This is just a run-down of some of the early wines of the day, and when I return I will actually discuss the menu and some wines of note for the Thanksgiving dinner.