So this Thanksgiving was our first Thanksgiving without any extended family in the area. Just my brother, Kirk, his wife, Karla, and their 1yr old daughter, Mayah. We decided to invite some international students over to share our meal. As it turns out we were privileged to have two Turkish students over, Musa, and Özge. Since my wife and I were in Turkey for 9 mo we thought it was wonderful to return some of the warmth and generosity that was extended to us during our time there. We had an interesting time explaining some of our customs to them, nonetheless, it was a fun time of fellowship and it did our hearts well to reminisce about our wonderful time in Turkey.
One of our strange customs for Thanksgiving is eating Turkey. I’m not sure why this is because Turkey is an extremely dry meat and so to compensate for the dryness we pour gravy all over the food. Then inevitably we complain after the meal about how we “overdid” it. I for one think this unacceptable. The last thing I want to do on Thanksgiving is eat a dry Turkey with no flavor. My remedy was to smoke our Turkey. After soaking the bird in a brine for 24 hrs, I got up at 4:20 am to get the bird on the smoker. As it turned out Thanksgiving this year also lands on my birthday so for some inexplicable reason I decided to get up at this ungodly hour on a holiday/birthday and smoke a Turkey. Was it worth it? You BET baby! Best tasting turkey I’ve ever eaten. I think I just started to new Kauffman family tradition. It has ruined me for normal, traditional Thanksgiving. Please don’t ever invite me over for Thanksgiving meal unless you ask me to bring the turkey.
I also turned 30 this year. It’s the day I never thought would come. Not that I’m afraid of turning 30. I know that age is inevitable. It’s just that as a teenager you always view 30 as a “way out there” age. I guess I’m now “way out there” in addition to being middle aged. Ok, I said it. I’m now middle aged, no longer a young adult. I’m thankful to God for the health I have, the wonderful family I grew up in, and amazing privilege God has given me to be a husband to my beautiful wife and raise His children for the brief time we get to raise them. His providence is perfect in every way. If there is one thing I’ve learned over the past few years it is that God provides generously to those He has chosen for a reason and it now rests on us to re-invest the investment He has made in us for His glory.
