Time to reflect: what are you thankful for?

American Thanksgiving is virtually upon us, but will perhaps be subsumed by the commercialization of Christmas as that holiday and its observance creeps earlier and earlier each year — at least in the stores. We passed through a Lord & Taylor department store last week and saw, to our horror, that tables were bedecked with Christmas ornaments, giant Santa statues and candy canes and the like. We haven’t even hit Halloween and there it is.  Was that fake snow or dust on them?  They must have been set out weeks before.  Surely as the observation of Christmas moves up, will it not crush whatever it overtakes? There isn’t much to sell connected with Thanksgiving; except perhaps the notorious turkey fryer to keep the man of the house busy when not watching football. That gift has the added benefit of setting the deck on fire (assuming the chef fails to make the connection between wood, combustion and fire), so at least the household gets to look forward to a new deck as a Christmas present (thank you, Insurance Agent!), and a story to last a lifetime. Assuming everyone survives the conflagration.

But now its time to celebrate the harvest — Thanksgiving! Fortunately for us we celebrate it twice each year, thanks to our good friends Rob and Leah Gonsa, owners of Donny Brook Stables in Saxe, Virginia, who celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving each year (Leah is from British Columbia). Canadian Thanksgiving officially falls on the second Monday in October each year, so they pick a Saturday close to it so their friends from distant places can participate.  We’ve written about the Gonsa’s farm on another occasion (Get a Horse!), and last year they hosted a fabulous Mardi Gras party in their wonderful horse barn (A Festive & Magical Mardi Gras Feast).

Saxilicious. Image © 2012 Donny Brook Stables

The Gonsas were happy to announce the sale of one of their horses, called Saxilicious (otherwise and affectionately known as “Saxy”), a three-year old thoroughbred gelding that was born at Donny Brook, but lately has been training at a facility in Middleburg, Virginia.

After a toast to Saxy, on to dinner: passed appetizers included tomatoes stuffed with goat cheese and scallops wrapped with bacon.  The first course a simple Caesar salad, followed by roast pork loin stuffed with prunes, served with sweet potatoes and  green beans, paired with our off-dry 2011 Annefield Vineyards Viognier, which won a Gold Medal and was named Best in Show at the Town Point Virginia Wine Competition.  How fun is that?  That’s something else to be thankful for.

And dessert?  Creme Brûlée paired with real moonshine.  A fun and memorable dinner, over too quickly. But fear not: we have American Thanksgiving to look forward to.