Thanksgiving

This is what I came home to late last Monday night. Claire must've come by and brought in my mail, because it was waiting for me on my kitchen table when I got in from Ankara. I'd just spent the weekend in Erzurum with the Eastern Bloc ETAs, flying in and out of the Esenboğa and Erzurum airports.

The reason why mail's (from before Halloween to Thanksgiving) getting to me so slowly? It's my own fault: I've given you the wrong postal code. It's 14280, not 14030.

I spent several hours in the airport in Ankara writing Christmas cards. I haven't sent them all out-- not by a long shot-- but I've started on them. When I address my cards during this season, I always remember a time three or four years ago when my art students at DeSales were working on sending cards they'd just illustrated. One of my ninth graders (a young man only ten years younger than myself) didn't know how to address an envelope: he'd never done it before. When you're Sharon Salvador's daughter you know how to address an envelope almost as soon as you learn to write "thank you".

The handwritten card or letter is a discipline that I want to be faithful to, even if the USPS raises its prices skyhigh because fewer and fewer of us practice this discipline any longer.

I was writing cards home because I needed to and because I wasn't sure what to expect from Thanksgiving. The only people in the East that I'd spent any significant time with since orientation were Will, Jeremy, and Wyatt. But Emily, Elizabeth, HelenMarie, and Korey welcomed me into their homes with food, drink, and friendship. It was an exceptional Thanksgiving weekend.

Elizabeth (Erzurum) and Duncan (Trabzon) munching scones.

Will (Gümüşhane) making his family's famous cranberry compote
(sans cranberries).

Prep time with Erin and Kate (Amasya) and Wyatt (Bayburt).

Emily (Erzurum) and Duncan (Trabzon) also making meal preparations.

Elizabeth and Hank Hindi.

Eric (Osmaniye) and Jeremy (Gümüşhane) at the food table.

Dessert!

These are a few of the faces of friendship in my life right now. My pictures of HelenMarie and Korey from Saturday weren't loading properly, but I definitely slept on HM's couch all weekend. I highly recommend it. I only hope that I can make my visitors feel equally welcome in my home as I felt in Erzurum.

Wait, wait! Here's a picture of Helen! Here she's making gravy, and she's lovely. Also pictured: Nermin and Elizabeth coaxing the turkey to perfection.