Thanksgiving With the Family

Happy Thanksgiving! Just gonna drop a quick note, since I'm tired and I want to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving before I head for bed. I started the morning with Garfield's Thanksgiving and the only TV show I own with a Thanksgiving episode, the seventh season Perfect Strangers episode "Wild Turkey." Larry buys 58 turkeys from a farmer the day before Thanksgiving, hoping to sell them to last-minute shoppers. His scheme, pardon the pun, turns out to be a turkey. The only bird they sell all day may be the one who ate Larry's wife's wedding ring, and he and Balki actually go to the family that bought it in an attempt to get into the turkey to retrieve it. Other than some cute references to Happy Days, this one's not a huge favorite of mine. Larry and Balki were really lucky they weren't arrested for more-or-less breaking into this family's home and almost destroying their dinner!

I watched part of the Macy's Parade after Garfield. I was surprised to see a Smurf balloon. Rose later said they never really fell out of popularity, and I know they've been big in Europe since the 50s...but didn't they kind of peak in the 80s? I had to check my calender to make sure it wasn't 1985!

Rose did show up on time, for once, and with a bit of a surprise. She brought her two puppies, Kelsey the Miniature Pincher and Toby the Border Collie, with us today. Her boyfriend apparently had work, and his mother, who normally watches the dogs, was visiting relatives. Kelsey kept trying to climb into her mother's lap (ignoring the fact that she was driving), but other than that, the dogs were very good.

The rest of my family was pretty good, too. It was me, Rose, the two dogs, my sister Anny, her boyfriend Mike, her 4-year-old son Skylar, Mom, Dad, and our cousin from Virgina, Adam (the son of Mom's sister Terri, and a good friend of Anny's). Mom was the only one home when we arrived, watching the end of the parade and basting the turkey. The boys came home about twenty minutes later from a run to the closest WaWa for milk, and Anny, Mike, and Skylar arrived about a half-hour after that.

Mom and Dad live in a brand-new, just-built house in Erma, about ten or so minutes from Cape May on the mainland, across from the Cape May County Airport. It's really a lovely house. I loved her gorgeous, modern kitchen (and the top-of-the-line appliances), and her pretty sage-green master bedroom. Keefe had his own bedroom with a daybed and a work desk he made himself. Anny's boyfriend Mike laid the hard wood floors, and Mom designed the tile pattern in the downstairs bathroom and sewed or crocheted the curtains herself. (Mom's already talking about additions; I don't know if Dad's as enthusiastic, especially since they just finished the main house a few months ago.)

We played Mario Kart on the Wii and watched football until "dinner" was ready. Dinner was very early, about 2PM, but Mom had gotten the turkey in early and she knew Rose and I didn't want to stay for long. We had turkey (I had dark meat - I love dark meat), sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, ginger-glazed carrots, green bean casserole, real home-made not-boxed stuffing, cranberry sauce, pearl onions, and rolls. I ate a ton of everything but the mashed potatoes (I'm not a big fan of white potatoes).

We watched the original 1969 The Love Bug while Mom prepared coffee and tea. Love Bug is one of Skylar's favorite movies. He loves to "drive" along with Herbie, making car noises with his Pop Pop and Uncle. Skylar chased the dogs (thankfully, he never caught them) while we had chocolate chip bars, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and my gingerbread cookies for dessert.

After Rose, the dogs, and I left Mom and Dad's, we stopped at Rose's best friend Colleen's house for a few hours to chat with her and her mother. Colleen has been Rose's best friend since they were in many of the same high school classes together. Colleen is sweet (she's actually eaten over for Thanksgiving several times), but tends to be a little neurotic and high-strung. She'd just come home from Thanksgiving dinner with another family when we arrived. Her mother, a postal employee, came home about an hour later. We sat back and chatted and watched The Closer Marathon on TNT. (I was surprised how much I ended up liking that show, maybe because, unlike the 500 versions of CSI, it keeps the icky stuff and science talk to a minimum.)

We made a very brief stop back at Mom and Dad's for a bag of seafood Daddy, a commercial fisherman, wanted to give Rose, then two tired girls and two even more tired pups drove home. We had a lovely chat about books (Rose reads science fiction, fantasy, and English lit classics; I prefer mysteries) and about our family (and Anny's problems with the new baby coming) on the way home.

I'm thankful I had the opportunity to spend time with my family (and that they all more-or-less behaved themselves) and to finally visit them. I'm thankful for being able to provide for myself at least a little.