November 23-27, 2022: Thanksgiving in San Antonio
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It's Christmastime again in Dallas and, as usual, I'll be doing Christmas dinner for the usual suspects. Most of the pictures on this page will be from that dinner, but before we get to that, Fred and I went to see some of the Christmas decorations in our own neighborhood.

Christmas Decorations in Shannon Estates

In case I haven't mentioned it, I learned some time ago (actually when I got a smartphone for the first time) that the area in which I live is technically known as Shannon Estates. My weather app never showed "Dallas" when I was at home, but rather "Shannon Estates". I did some online research to find that back in the 1940s the area where I am now had been surveyed and about twenty square blocks had been given the designation "Shannon Estates". I checked my deed to the house and sure enough, Shannon Estates was mentioned.

This neighborhood is roughly the area bounded by Inwood Road (east), Lovers Lane (north), Lemmon Avenue (west), and Mockingbird Lane (south). Our neighborhood is immediately adjacent to Love Field, Dallas' close-in airport, but we don't have the noise problems that neighborhoods northwest and southeast of the airport have, since the layout of the airport's runways has flights coming in and taking off either northwest over Bachman Lake or southeast over Cedar Springs and the southern portion of Lemmon Avenue.

Now, Shannon Estates is immediately adjacent (right across Inwood) to Greenway Park, one of the Park Cities (the other one is Highland Park) and part of one of Dallas' most exclusive (and expensive) areas to live. The thing is, the Park Cities are all built out, and for folks who want to live in the area, the only choice has been to buy an already expensive property and then renovate (since most of the houses are from the 1950s and 1960s). This has become a more and more expensive proposition.

Enter Shannon Estates. The houses right along the west side of Inwood, including Greenway Villas Townhomes, have always been on the large side, with only a precious few cottage-style houses remaining. But when you continue west, towards Love Field, the house size drops off precipitously; the house sizes just north of me have always been fairly small. Also, as you get closer to the airport, the neighborhood becomes heavily African-American, with almost all small, wood-frame houses. Noise doesn't really become a problem until you get very close to Love Field. What has happened, particularly in the last ten years, is that prospective Park Cities residents have discovered that they can buy on of the small cottage-type houses, tear it down, and put up something close to a McMansion on the lot- for half the cost of doing the same thing literally a block or two away.

So that is what is happening. Behind me, on Robin Road, almost all the previously small ranch-style homes have been replaced with very large homes in a variety of styles. The lot just over our fence, currently the site of a long, low, white ranch house (the owner died some years ago and the house has been empty since then) just sold for $1 million, and the plans filed with the city show the construction of a $4 million house on that lot. This is an extreme example; most of the new houses being built are in the $1-2 million range.

The sad part is that, just as has happened in many places in this country, the taxable value of properties is increasing, and the incomes of the current owners or renters of those properties hasn't nearly kept pace. So the less-rich owners are forced to sell, and the more-rich buyers move in. When these people buy their properties and build their houses and move into them, they bring their expensive lifestyles with them, and part of that lifestyle at Christmastime is to have professionals do your Christmas decorations- just as is currently (and famously) done over in the Park Cities. There, the decorations are so extensive that at Holiday time there are carriages taking customers up and down the residential streets to ooh and awe over them.

Carriages going up and down Robin Road are probably still a number of years off, but already the Christmas decorations are beginning to rival many of those over in the more exclusive zipcode of Highland Park. On one evening, Fred and I took our cameraphones and walked just past the grocery store to the part of Robin Road north of University a block away to have a look. Here are some representative views:

Christmas Dinner

When we have Thanksgiving in San Antonio, my custom is to buy a turkey during the Thanksgiving sales and then put it in the freezer until Christmas. That way, I can have my bounteous leftovers for the next year.

"Basting Away Again in..."

This is perhaps the 50th turkey I have cooked. I recall beginning when I was in the Army and living off-post, and I can remember cooking one every year in Chicago, and certainly almost every year since moving to Dallas. I can recall the odd time when I was either traveling or otherwise occupied, and once or twice I may have gone to someone else's house for the traditional meal. So I am going to call this turkey #49, and next year will make an even 50.

The process is the same; chopping the celery, onion, and parsley; laying out the bread to get a bit stale and then cubing it. Laying in a supply of butter and chicken broth and poultry seasoning. And, of course, buying the turkey. I used to get up early to do all this (except buy the turkey, as it takes days to thaw), but that's when I was cooking birds weighing 10-14 pounds.

But I like leftover turkey so much, and I like having it throughout the year so much, that beginning when I moved to Dallas I always tried to find the biggest turkey possible. That weight keep creeping up, and when it passed 20 pounds, I found that to get the darn thing cooked by late afternoon I had to all my prep work the day before, leaving only the mixing of the stuffing and the stuffing-into-the-bird chores for Thanksgiving Day. That's what I've been doing for at least the last 20 years. Once the bird gets into the oven (usually around 8:30 or 9) then it is just a waiting game until about three in the afternoon. (Last year was a record 27-pounder; this year, it was a svelte 25.)

Meanwhile, the giblets have been cooking so I can use them in the gravy later. Basting the turkey is done every half hour or so, and the green bean casserole is prepared a couple of hours ahead of dinnertime. When we have guests, which is almost always the case, I can count on them to bring a side dish or two. And, as long as I have known him, Fred has put the desserts together.

So, if not a well-oiled machine, it's at least routine, and we enjoy doing it. When the guests arrive, most of whom wouldn't cook a turkey on their own, it is a pleasure to be able to provide it for them. That's a tradition my Dad followed when I was growing up; he always had someone from his office or someone he knew come and join us- usually bachelors or maybe visitors from out-of-town.

This year, we hoped to have eight people, but the day before Thanksgiving our friend Justin contracted Covid-19, or at least tested positive. So he and Gary, who usually come back from Louisiana to come to dinner, had to bow out. So we had our good friend Lou, our good friends Steve and Mario, and our longtime friend and reliable cat-sitter, Lynne.

The Guest of Honor/The Star of the Show

And, finally, not counting the turkey, here are pictures of the other guests for 2022:

Steve, Mario, Lou, and Fred

Steve, Mario, Lou, and myself

Lou, Lynne, Me, Steve, and Mario

Steve, Mario, Me, Fred, and Lou

Postscript

Christmas was the last recorded event of 2022. While we only took a couple of trips- to Ecuador in May and to Mexico in August- it was an eventful year. Now that we have our house in Ecuador, it is time for us to make our first trip down there as homeowners, and we have a lot to do in getting the house set up, getting our resident visas, and getting our cedulas (similar to a national ID card). We plan to do as much of that as we can beginning in mid-January, but that's a story for next year's pages.

While the pandemic may have abated, it is still a factor in travel and other activities; perhaps it always will be. But we look forward to a year in which the return to normal continues.

Thanks for looking at this year's pictures. You might check back in Summer, 2023, to see our inaugural trip to our new house and our Transatlantic cruise in April.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 23-27, 2022: Thanksgiving in San Antonio
	Return to the Index for 2022