Thanksgiving with Friends | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Please join me in welcoming our newest contributor to BCN, Kathy Manos Penn, a native of the "Big Apple", by way of the "Peach City" - Atlanta. Kathy is a former English teacher, author of The Ink Penn blog, and a communications professional in corporate America. Now with Kathy on board, I advise all other contributors to mind your punctuation and syntax.

    We'll be spending Thanksgiving Day with friends this year. Our host will cook the turkey on his Green Egg, and we'll all bring side dishes. It may not be traditional holiday fare, but I've been asked to bring Greek salad, and I'm quite sure that another friend will bring the homemade cranberry salad he prepares every year. When we friends are together, there are certain dishes you can always count on.

    Many years ago, a group of us were moaning about the stress of juggling schedules every year to eat two Thanksgiving dinners in a vain attempt to please all the parents and in-laws, and we came up with the idea of starting our own tradition instead. For nine years, we all traveled to Myrtle Beach to stay in a rambling beach house Wednesday through Sunday, sometimes longer. It always reminded us of The Big Chill house with its hardwood floors, rocking chair porch, and big rustic kitchen with a farm table. I have fond memories of seeing Dirty Dancing for the first time while vacationing there.
The best of Myrtle Beach: Above. Early morning on the Myrtle Beach boardwalk: Below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click image to expand.
    Depending on the weather, we walked on the beach while the kids surfed, or we stayed warm in front of the fire. The pictures we took over the years show us dressed in shorts and tee shirts and in jackets, scarves and hats. We cycled or ran or played tennis. We played Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary. We shopped at the outlet malls, and we enjoyed the rockers on the big back porch. We started each morning in our rockers with our cups of coffee, as we looked over the sand dunes. For me, that was when my vacation officially started, with that first cup of coffee, as I took my seat in a rocker.

    We interrupted this routine when the first child went to college, knowing that he'd want to come home to Atlanta to see his own friends rather than travel to the beach. How were we to know that hiatus would last for over 15 years? One child graduated, the next one went off to school, and so it went. We went our separate ways and did the family thing, but we always missed our annual retreat.

    We were delighted two years ago, when one couple completed their mountain home and invited us all up for the Holiday weekend. It was just like old times. No, there wasn't a beach to walk on, but there was a gorgeous lake view, a roaring fire and plenty of good food and wine. Instead of keeping a watchful eye on small children, we chatted with adult kids and walked the four-legged ones.

    We quickly fell into our old routine of divvying up the food assignments for the big meal. We drank our coffee viewing the lake from the many windows and the deck, and we added the new ritual of watching the sun set over the lake, glass of wine in hand, of course. This year, because the youngest child in the group is a senior in college and would prefer to spend the holiday in Atlanta seeing friends, we'll gather locally for the day. I suspect that once she embarks on a career, we'll head back to the mountains.

    No matter the location, I always look forward to enjoying time with good friends, and I'm thankful to have them all in my life.