White...Thanksgiving?

T-day was a cold day, the weather having changed recently from warm fall days to the chill of winter. Although the sun peeked over the mountains for a few minutes, a bank of clouds were soon rolling over. We had planned a T-day lunch with friends then a hike. The hike was cancelled. It was a disastrous cooking day, with the recipes, if not failing outright, not performing up to par. Still, we managed some salmon/creme fraiche/caper/lemon thyme canapes and some olive tapenade/chevre/marjoram canapes for party #1. I had made the pumpkin cheesecake (with gingerbread/pecan crust, sour cream mousse, and homemade toffee crunch topping - the whole thing was about 4" tall) the night before for party #2. Disastrously, I remembered the time wrong, and got to party #2 about 2 hours late. The hosts were furious (to put it mildly), as I had done this once before when I had remembered the date wrong. Still, at least the cheesecake was fantastic. We left when I couldn't stand the wafts of cigarette smoke anymore (and received still more criticism for leaving "after 2-1/2 hours"). On our way out, snow began falling, and in an hour, it had blanketed the ground. I ran out to rescue the marginal Agave parrasana. Most of the snow melted by bedtime, but this was the view by morning.