Our Thanksgiving Without A Dishwasher

This morning, we awoke to no power in the house. The situation quickly remedied itself before it affected our traditional holiday meal, but it brought to mind a Thanksgiving about 5 years ago, when clean-up took an unexpected turn.

That Thanksgiving Day had started like any other Thanksgiving Day. I got up early and started preparations. The pies were done the day before, the turkey was stuffed and roasting in the oven, sweet potatoes cooked and candied, and all the other assorted vegetables, rolls and cranberry sauce were prepared, the table set and water glasses filled. We have a tradition of passing a "blessing cup" before the meal, when everyone has a chance to say what they are thankful for that year and takes a sip out of the cup. (I actually remember a year not too long ago when all I was thankful for was that the cooking was over.) We dug into our meal, with all the assorted goodies mounted so high on our plates that one wondered how you were going to eat all that you took. "Take all you want, but eat all you take" is the motto at our Thanksgiving table.

We were enjoying our meal, with several different conversations going on at the same time, and everything went off like clockwork. It was a successful gathering... UNTIL... we tried running the first load of dishes after the meal was over. As the water began draining from the dishwasher, the kitchen sink began filling with the discarded water. Our first clue that something was wrong was when I went into the kitchen to find the floor flooded with the water that had spilled over the edge of the sink. We were able to catch the event before it got too far out of hand, and proceeded to soak up the excess water with any towel at hand while Steve quickly diagnosed the problem as a clogged pipe. Since our children had a habit of shoving everything they could down the garbage disposal, his diagnosis was not far-fetched.

Several attempts at unclogging the pipe were unsuccessful. Usually there are 3 or 4 loads of dishes on Thanksgiving, and our children could not fathom not having a dishwasher or even a sink to do the dishes in. Thinking that there was no way to clean up the kitchen, Jason said "Well I guess dishes will have to wait until tomorrow." HAH! Mom to the rescue!

I quickly had the family take all the dishes out to the backyard, where the washtub lay waiting. Several buckets of hot water were brought out to the washtub by bucket brigade, and the hose was at the ready for rinsing. All of us were out there, washing, rinsing, drying and carrying the dishes back into the house to be put away. In an hour or so, all was under control. All the dishes, pots, pans, silver and glassware were back in their appropriate spots in the house. The boys were astounded, saying "how in the world did you know what to do?"

I just smiled my mother's satisfied smile.

Here's hoping that all your holidays are wonderful, filled with happy memories and your loved ones lift one more glass to remember those who are not able to be with us.

Nazdrovie'

Paczki Puta