Happy Thanksgiving!
We have had a really great day; though I’ll
begin with the not-so-fun news that we also had to deal with a very rainy day
too – and I mean very, very rainy! That
was too bad, since it was also fairly warm out; and it would have been nice to
spend time outdoors enjoying that warm instead of just dodging the raindrops as
we ran between houses for the family dinners and visits to other neighbors and
friends.
The rain hadn’t started first thing this
morning, so Tai Chi by the river was an option; and then I got ready for the
day right away so that I could go over to Michael’s house and help out with the
work going on there to get ready for their family dinner. I had breakfast there too, but that was just
a snack meal that we ate while continuing the work on the main meal of the
day. Lucas wasn’t there for breakfast,
but he did come over by mid-morning to hang out with Rebecca. They’ve been doing the same thing today that
Michael and I have been – attending the early dinner with the Stone-Bassett
clan; and then they spent the rest of the day with his family while Michael was
with me and mine.
Working all morning might not seem like a
fun way to spend the day, but it wasn’t all work and no play. We watched the Macy’s parade in the living
room when we could – and even brought some of the work with us so that we could
do that; and the chat time was really special too. The guys talked football quite a bit too, but
Miranda, Rebecca, and I were happy to do our own thing whenever our favorite
boys were busy talking sports. Jacob
puts on the best family dinners in town – and possibly one of the best in the
world, but compared to running the Inn; getting all of the work done for a holiday
meal for under fifty people was easy.
Most of the hard work was done by the time most of the members of the
Bassett clan and a few other guests began arriving; and then Michael and I were
put on kid control through until the end of dinner.
I was really happy to spend that time with Michael’s
cousins. It’s been tough making enough
time for Ethan and Ehlana; and we’ve hardly spent any time with Jessica, Ryan,
and Sophia at all over the past few months.
That isn’t fair for them, and we’d like to do more; but let’s not get
into my usual regrets over things like this today and move along.
While the living room television was being
used for parades and football today, video gaming was an option for the kids in
the second-floor room that neither Michael nor Rebecca really use as a play room
much anymore. We were up there a lot
until shortly before dinner was served; and that was a fun little interlude
before the familial chaos that was our first Thanksgiving dinner of the day. The food was amazing; Michael and I got to
sit and talk with the other teens and young adults at the far-end of the table
from the parents and grandparents; and I especially loved hearing about what
Michael’s college cousins had been doing over the past few months while away at
school. I don’t keep in very close contact
with them compared to the rest of my favorite collegians; but that’s mostly
their choice. I do exchange emails with
them – they just don’t usually offer nearly the same amount of details that
Violet, Stephanie, and Christina do with me.
College stories are getting to be more
interesting to Rebecca and Lucas now that they’re getting closer to their
senior year; but Michael and Lucas were also both happy to talk college
football with the other guys too. Tim
would have loved being there for that; but I’m sure he’s had lots of football
talk at the Landry family Thanksgiving – even if he probably didn’t get very
much of that with Rowen’s family. While
Michael and I weren’t into the college living stories quite the same was that
Rebecca and Lucas were, I have been thinking about college more; and it’ll soon
be time to start working on that part of my future plans fairly soon. That’s going to include getting Michael, Tim,
and Rowen on-board with what I’d like to do, but I don’t need to go there with
this report; and won’t need to begin dealing with that until sometime next May
or June.
While we spent most of the dinner time
talking with the older cousins, I also had Jessica next to me; so there was a
bit of kid time action too. She tried to
keep up with our collective conversations too, and Jessica is the eldest of the
younger cousins, but she also can’t quite relate to some of the college chat
topics yet; she was bored with some of the topics; and had to split her time
between us and the other kids. As usual,
it felt a bit strange to be at a family dinner with Erica and Caleb –
especially this year when I’ve not only been a cheerleader with Erica; but I’ve
also been around her during quite a few chats about how tough it has been to
have her boyfriend away at college for her senior year of high school.
I’m glad that Michael and I won’t have to
deal with that; and I’m sure that Erica and Caleb have both been enjoying his
time at home – even if she has been stuck in classes for three of the days he’s
been here.
Dinner was winding down by a bit after two
o’clock, and then it was time for some of us to get back to work on the
clean-up crew. Michael and I were two of
the draftees; and that’s why we didn’t end up having much down time to just hang out with his family before
it was time for us to head over to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house. We stopped in for a quick visit with Rowen
and Tim at her house on the way there, but they were in between family meals
too; so we didn’t have much time to spend with them. Everyone else in our collective group was
already there by the time Michael and I arrived; but we still had more than an
hour to just hang out and have fun. We
split that time between the living room and the play room; enjoying chances to
visit with the adults and then play with the kids until everyone was called for
dinner.
Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne had quite a gang
over despite it being an away holiday for our family; and that was mostly
because they invited Uncle Nick’s family to join us so that he and Aunt Deborah
didn’t have to try and do two family dinners too. That plan worked out pretty well for Ethan,
Ehlana, and Zack too, since Naomi and Eli were there with their parents and
some of their Ayres and Seager relatives.
Michael had a tougher time, since the younger boys all wanted to hang
out with him, but I ended up with a bit less to do for the kid control work;
and I got to spend bonus time taking care of Brianna. Sure, she was popular with the parents and
grandparents in the house too; but I got to take care of her while we had
dinner.
I volunteered for that job, and while I did
eat some food; two major meals was just too much for me to be able to handle
eating a second full dinner. Michael did
better for that than I did; but then he’s also done a fair bit of running
around with the boys both before and after dinner. We were both on the post-dinner clean-up crew
because we didn’t help with any of the pre-dinner work; and then we again split
the rest of our evening between playing with the kids and visiting with the
adults. The number of guests at the
house began to drop not long after the kitchen and dining room clean-up was
finished; and that slow exodus began with Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah when they
made the fairly last-minute decision to hit the road for their weekend away with
her family tonight instead of early Friday morning.
We kept Leah and Sebastian with us while
they went home to pack their car; and then they picked up the kids once they
were ready to leave town. Since
Sebastian was nodding off before they even pulled out of the driveway and Leah didn’t
likely stay awake through the first show they put on for her to watch on her
iPad; I’ll guess that they have had an easy trip. Not having one or two cranky kids in the car
for the long drive will be worth the trade-off for the late night – and they
can always get family support for the kids in the morning if they want to sleep
in and miss out on some of the Black Friday shopping fun.
That isn’t going to happen for me, since I’m
going to be up extra-early to go and help out at the Inn with the breakfast
buffet; so I’d better move this along and get some sleep.
Michael and I were among the last to leave
Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house – and that was after Mom and Dad took the
twins home for the night. We helped out
with the final living room, play room, and kitchen clean-up; took care of
Brianna’s bedtime cuddle and music time; and Michael helped with getting Zack
to bed too when my too-busy cousin wanted to try and party all night instead of
listening to his parents. All of that
work and family time was fun, but I was ready to come home – and glad that
Michael came in with me so that we could have a bit of cuddle time for two
before he needed to move on to his place.
Ethan and Ehlana had still been awake then, but they were also in their
rooms; so we stopped in for bedtime visits with them on our way up to the
lounge. That was at the same time that
Mom and Dad went to bed; so all was fairly quiet in the house after that.
We watched a movie, enjoyed a bit of quiet
make-out play time; and then Michael headed home at a bit after
eleven-thirty. He wouldn’t let me see
him out this time, so I was likely changed and in bed before he was; and Mandy
was happy to snuggle with me while I fired up my computer to do my bedtime
computer and email checks. That didn’t
take too long, and even with one tiny bit of work to do for the family
business; that didn’t even take as long as writing a few emails to my cousins
did. I haven’t been sent any holiday
reports yet, but I sent news from home with those email; and will likely hear
back from most of my cousins by tomorrow night.
This report hardly seems to even begin to
cover everything that happened today, but holidays are just like that – a blur
of cameo moments that would take too long to write about; yet add up to an
amazing day with my family and friends.
I really need to get some sleep now, though, and I have covered at least
some of the highlights; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
