Thanksgiving is undoubtedly one of my favorite holidays, if not my most favorite.  It is brief and to the point, not overly hyped, low key yet full of cheer, and we always spend it with close family and/or friends.

Also, any holiday on which we visit my brother Mike and his family in Columbia, TN is a great holiday.  This Thanksgiving was no exception.  An relatively newly established ritual for Mike and me is our  morning visits to Buckhead Coffee, the only coffee shop in town.  It’s a guy thing, and so it’s usually just the two of us.  Sometimes Dale (my son-in-law) joins us if he and Em are visiting and stay overnight.

Buckhead is a quiet, quaint little house that has been converted to the wholesome goodness of expresso and anything related to the coffee bean.  Their lattes are awesome, and they serve up lots of goodies from homemade banana bread to muffins to almost any seasonal baked treat you can think of.  There is a stead flow of people in and out, but as with many small towns, never a mad rush of folks.  It’s a warm, relaxing atmosphere.  It’s homy.

Mike and I always enjoy catching up on things over a hot latte.  I’m pretty sure we’ve solved most major world problems while frequenting Buckhead the past 4-5 years (or at least they would be solved if the “powers that be” were listening and would execute our plan!).  It’s a great time to reflect on family, growing up in nearby Hohenwald, Mike’s business ventures, sports, and most anything else that comes to mind.  Then after a great chat, we head home with a latte for Dorine and a Sonic fountain coke for Kathy.  All is good.

These visits remind me of my childhood days when dad would stop by my grandmother’s house every morning on the way to work and have coffee with her.  Daddy loved his mom, and wouldn’t take a million dollars for those daily visits.  They didn’t partake in fancy lattes, of course.  As a matter of fact, I can vividly remember my dad grumbling about the fact that “Mama ‘Co” as we called her, would brew the coffee at 3am when she got up, then keep it warm on the floor furnace until he came at 7am.  Lukewarm on the floor furnace, by the way.  She raised 5 kids as a single mother during the depression, so she knew how to cut every corner.  Keeping the stove on to heat coffee would have been a waste of money and resource, even though she could well afford it by the 70’s and 80’s.  The floor furnace was already warm, so why not kill two birds with one stone!  She conserved in everything she did.  Even though daddy grumbled, we all knew the coffee wasn’t the reason he was there every morning.

And to just think … Mike and I didn’t even like coffee until a few years ago.  🙂

Latte from Buckhead Coffee - Columbia, TN

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