This is a news release from the city:

Durango Parks and Recreation has several openings in the Kid’s Days Childcare Program during the holiday break.  Kid’s Days activities include ice skating at Chapman Hill, gymnastics at the Mason Center, swimming at the Recreation Center, craft projects, lots of games and much more!  These supervised activities keep your child(ren) safe, happy and entertained during the holidays.

Check out the Park and Recreation Winter Activities Guide for more information about these and many more great programs.  Sign up today at the Recreation Center, Mason Center or Chapman Hill or online at www.durangogov.org.  For more information on these great programs, contact the Durango Community Recreation Center at 375-7300.

The time has come.

Having skirted the responsibility for decades, I will make my first Thanksgiving dinner this year. I don’t know how it is that I have avoided it for this long. I suppose it’s a factor of having been either out of the country or residing in a domicile unsuitably small or equipped.

Technically, I did host Thanksgiving one year. It was 1995. I was living in Dallas, and my brother, who lived in the near-by suburb of Arlington, was in a head-on collision. So Thanksgiving was moved on the fly from my grandparents place in Oklahoma City to my house, which I happened to share with three people, including two gay guys. The food was supplied mostly by the deli of a gourmet grocery store. I’ll never forget that evening, which found my mother, my grandparents, one of the gay roommates and his friend and another roommate drinking wine and playing round after round of spades. I have to say, that remains my favorite Thanksgiving, and I’m happy to report my brother recovered fully.

Each Thanksgiving is memorable in its own unique way (the first I brought my live-in boyfriend, now husband, home for the holiday and he got an unequivocal thumbs up), and I’m sure this one will be, too. Especially if I burn the dressing and ruin the rolls. Being vegetarians, as least I don’t have to worry about the turkey. For the main dish, I’ll being doing a variation on my grandmother’s Southern stuffing, adding tofu and nuts and forming it into a loaf of sorts. Local mom Audrey Crane, a fellow veggie who is rapidly becoming my culinary touchstone, was able to help with some recipe suggestions, including all-purpose gravy, real green-bean casserole and dinner rolls from http://www.cooksillustrated.com. For dessert, I’m going non-traditional with flan because I have a recipe that is heavenly from a friend in Mexico City.

Of course the biggest challenge will be keeping the household mayhem at bay long enough to prepare all this. Why don’t they ever add navigating small children to up the difficulty level on Iron Chef? My guess is because they’d crumble like day-old cornbread.

Wherever this Thanksgiving may find you — in the kitchen or not — may it bring you happiness and fill you with gratefulness for your families. Peace.