What Was I To Do Now, A Four Foot Snowstorm Fell On My Holiday?

Several years ago my husband and I had moved away from our families on the East Coast. My husband had accepted a transfer out of our home state. We were newly weds on our own. We knew a couple who lived a few hours away from our new home and planned to have them in for Thanksgiving dinner. They graciously accepted our invitation and the planning began. I was new to this hostess thing, I wanted it to come off well.

The shopping and all the prep. work was done, the twenty-two pound turkey was defrosted and the stuffing was ready to go into the bird in the morning. The corn was sitting in the bottom of the refrigerator shucked. The cranberries had been simmered and the wrapped fruit and pumpkin pies were on top of the garage cabinets where it was cooler. We had sweet potato casserole and green beans already to go into creamy mushroom sauce and the traditional crunchy onion topping at the ready. There was whipping cream, all ready for whisk to top the pies, A special blend of coffee to go with the pies and new long candles for the table. There was even a new table cloth waiting to be baptized with my first attempt at home made gravy.

Than the biggest snow storm in ages hit. There were three feet on the ground and it was still coming down on Wednesday evening. The weather man was predicting another foot before it stopped and after a short break of less than twenty-four hours he spoke of another huge storm behind this one! We were stunned.

Travel would be deadly. Our friends who were the only folks we knew in the state called and begged off. How could they not. Driving was out of the question. What was I going to do with all that food, and there really was an awful lot of it. The fridge was ready to burst. I was planning on feeding 17 people, and of course we all want to have leftovers so I planned on sending enough home with everyone for sandwiches.

My husband and I discussed it for a while. We decided that we were all in the same situation. We went and rang stranger's door bells in our new neighborhood. These were people we had not ever met, they did knot know us from Adam,and we did not know them. We found a few families disappointed that they could not get out to their own Thanksgiving family dinners. They came to our Thanksgiving day dinner instead. It was a lovely impromptu neighborhood gathering. It allowed us get to know our new neighbors and resolved all that extra food. We even sent some of the leftovers home with those new friends.

We are all old friends now, we often laugh about how we met on the stoop in the snow. Though we have moved several times since than we still keep in touch. We do not send Christmas Cards to our old Colorado neighbors, this 'adopted family' receives Thanks Giving Day cards every year.

Learn more about this author, A. C. O'Brien.
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