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For most, the excitement of Thanksgiving ends with the last piece of pumpkin pie and the last touchdown scored on TV.
We've never been like most people.
After consuming the bird and the sides, our family (with my sister and brother-in-law, her daughter and husband and grandchild), we nestled in the den to watch the (oh-so-adorable) movie, "UP." We were at the scene where the land is being cleared all around Carl Fredrickson's house. The beeping of the construction trucks played on the television—and then actually continued after the scene had ended. Someone mentioned how the beeps sounded a lot like a smoke alarm. My brother-in-law, Jim, the quiet but always the most observant one among us, said something about smelling smoke. Jason, the newest member of the clan, walked into the dining room and then ordered everyone out of the house.
A wall in the dining room was in flames.
I glanced at the disaster as I headed out the door. My husband, Jason, and Jim assumed the roles of firemen, tossing water on the wall (and turkey on the buffet below) and smothering the flames with a dish towel. (That didn't work; I never thought it would.)
We called 911, summoning the Kirkwood Fire Department to come check. When they didn't (the dispatcher thought we had the situation more under control than we did), a second call was placed. Suddenly the world was filled with sirens and trucks. The street was blocked off. The men in the yellow raincoats and big rubber boots came; they put out the fire; they axed a hole in the ceiling; the fire chief tried to calm down my distressed daughter; an investigator studied the scene.
The clue? The candle in the candlestick on the buffet in the dining room.
No mystery here.
The buffet my mother and father purchased when they were young was burnt, as was the mirror above it. The wall so beautifully upholstered in pleated linen was, of course, toast. But everyone was fine; the house was still standing; the insurance company was called.
And that's when the excitement began anew. The next morning, the wonderful people from a company called Catco arrived and left these huge machines called air scrubbers. They sounded like planes taking off on the runway but they really did the trick. Soon, the smoke in the air was pretty much gone. Then on Saturday, a crew of seven people came and cleaned our house from top to bottom. They stayed for hours. They returned on Monday to clean all the vents and furnaces, take up the rugs, scrub the carpeting and upholstered furniture and haul the draperies off to be cleaned.
Now all that remains is a chandelier that needs to be cleaned, a room that needs to be redecorated and a mirror and buffet in need of some serious repair.
And of course, we still need to finish watching UP.
Maybe next year.
After we've finished our Thanksgiving dinner. Lit by the overhead light.
No candles allowed.
