Happy Thanksgiving

This is just a quick note to offer a prayer of thanks for my friends who take the time to read Defiant Wellness. It is an opportunity to thank the many wonderful people who have blessed me over the past year with constant encouragement, which inspires me to persevere every day.

We all have traditions for celebration, some have more in common with one another, and some are rather unusual. Suzanne’s and mine tend to be that latter.

Since both of us no longer have parents, and our son is out of state, we have no family “obligations” when it comes to holidays. So in recent years our Thanksgiving tradition is a picnic at the ocean. Do not let you imagination run amok. We do not sit on the windswept beach as our plates are filled with blowing sand, with a fifteen degree chill factor.

We have several points along the North Shore where we know we can park overlooking the ocean. If the weather is nice, we back up to the water’s edge or a cliff and we sit on the tailgate with our meals on our laps. If it’s cold like today, we sit in the truck and enjoy the view through the windshield as we eat.

The menus varies as well. Since we are not constrained by other’s expectations, we mix it up. Last year we had a full turkey dinner. This year I bought Ribeye Steaks. But at the last minute this morning, we decided to save those and take something that would “travel” easier. We had Mexican Steak Tips served over a bed of baby spinach. Dessert was Apple Crisp.

We heat the food extra hot, then pack it in a Mylar bag and stick that in another insulated bag. After an hour and a half drive, the food is still warm enough to eat. Not hot, but certainly warmer than room temperature, and when it’s 30 degrees with a 20 mile an hour wind, warm tastes pretty good.

We drove past several ocean spots before settling on Old Garden Way in Rockport. There is a neighborhood beach there and the parking lot is about sixty feet above the shore. We drove to the edge and parked, enjoying the brilliant sky and the rough seas as the surf pounded the rocks. We savored our steak tips, saving dessert for another location.

We decided to stop in downtown Rockport to make a “pit stop” and we found a bakery that was open on Bear Skin Neck. So I got myself a cappuccino, and breaking my gluten fast, I bought us each an Almond Croissant as a treat. We drove to Magnolia and had our dessert there watching huge, violent waves crash the rocky shoreline, with white foam being tossed twenty feet into the air with thunderous sound.

We meandered through Manchester By-The-Sea, Beverly (Starbucks), Wenham, Hamilton and onto Ipswich, where we parked on Pavilion Beach near my mother’s old cottage. By days end, we had hit several beaches, had a few desserts and coffees and racked up almost 200 miles on the truck. We got home just as the sun was setting.

Now I’m sitting here typing this blog, dying for a turkey sandwich and a piece of pumpkin pie.

Be Defiant! Be Well! But most of all, be Thankful!

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