Labour of love

This year, as last, I took the train from The City to Grand View-on-Hudson on Thursday to spend American Thanksgiving with The Entertainment Mogul and his extended family. This year, there were 24 for dinner. Four children under the age of 7, various and sundry aunts and uncles and cousins and grandmothers galore. Some were from Italy, some were from Germany, which meant crostada in addition three other pies, and braised red cabbage. There were two tables, and the daughter in charge had clearly been reading her NY Times Thanksgiving articles. Let's just say there was a plan.

The hostess had also been reading the Times, and, rather than spend the moments after the turkey came out of the oven making gravy, spent the day before with a second bird, making gravy from scratch. Amazing.



Twenty four people is a lot, even in a large house with multiple levels. At some point in the evening, two thirds of the party headed home, and the children went to sleep, which left a lovely group of nine adults to debrief, relax, and share family stories. And there was a spectacular view of the George Washington Bridge on the way home.