Thanksgiving in Alaska

So while you were all snuggled in your big cities, deep frying your turkeys and getting your cranberry sauce out of a can, ReckenRoll was in the big AK getting a turkey dinner together the old fashioned way:

Without electricity.

Oh yeah - that's right - in my family's grand tradition of something going wrong on a major holiday, this year we had a power outage on the big T-Day thanks to a nasty wind storm and a fallen tree. The power went out around 1 pm and stayed out until about 10.30 pm that night. In this case, it was probably a good thing we were at the cabin.

We had a fire going in the fireplace already, were cooking the bird on the bbq anyway, and there were enough candles and kerosene laterns to keep the place well lit. The stove was gas, so was the oven, and the creek behind the house provided water for the potatoes and the toilet. The boys got to pee outside. They were happy*.

In fact, it may be one of the best Thanksgiving meals we've ever had. The food was awesome (2 kinds of homemade cranberry sauce), the company was good, and not having power meant a nice little intimate atmosphere and plenty of time for conversation. We even caught the forgotten plastic wrap on the already baking veg dish before it was too late.

I may just eat in the dark every year.

The part that struck me as the funniest is that when the power went out, we had been joking about, "What if the power goes out?" and then it did, and when it did, no one even really blinked. It was like, "Oh the power's out. Guess I should get to chopping those onions. Anyone care for a drink?" In Seattle, it would have been the headline on that night's local news "TURKEY DAY TRAUMA 2007!!" Instead, I don't think it even made the paper. God bless Alaskans.

Electricity? We don't need no stinkin electricity!!

Oh and Kadonkadonk, AK says hello :-)


*Why do boys like to pee outside? Seriously? What's the big joy in that?