Happy Thanksgiving!
It certainly has been a happy day around
here – along with crazy, busy, and exhausting!
Tai Chi this morning was about the only
quiet time Michael or I had through until tonight; and only about ten minutes
ago for me when Dawn finally fell asleep and I could get started on my bedtime
computer checks. I’m not doing much of
that, because I need to be up early and get ready to leave for the football
game; but I did at least want to write this and get my email checked in case
there were any family business jobs that needed to be dealt with before I head
out tomorrow.
I helped on the cooking side of breakfast
after seeing Michael out and on his way home after Tai Chi; breakfast was in
the dining room; and non-stop action for an hour; and then I took my turn
getting ready for the day along with still having time to help with part of the
kitchen clean-up. Oh yeah, and the
breakfast cooking time included getting a turkey in the oven and other early-morning
dinner prep-work. I wasn’t home for that
family dinner, but I can’t honestly be too sad about that; since I was at the
family dinner that Jacob cooked for the Stone family today. I’m not suggesting that I’m going to keep
Michael just for the food his father cooks; but it is a seriously awesome bonus
that goes along with the rest of the amazing package! ;^)
To be honest, the rest of the day from then
until we sat down to that amazing Thanksgiving dinner was a bit of a blur. Yes, I remember every single detail, and can
replay it all later; but it felt as though we didn’t actually do anything
except run around from house to house and spend a few minutes here and there
with as many people as we could. Michael
and I did at least get to mostly do that together, and we had others with us
for parts of those visits; but we didn’t really have time for more than those
short visits.
For me, that started out at his house; we
did another visit with his cousins; moved on to spend some time with the
Bassetts – and Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia in particular; and wrapped up our
morning with a visit to Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and their gang. Lunch was at my house; afternoon visits
included stops at the Everett and Emerson houses; and then we were at Michael’s
house for dinner with just the Stone family.
They’d considered including the Bassett clan too, but decided against
that – mostly so that Jacob could have the time with his family without the
extra company around; and so that it wasn’t too much for Annie or Heidi to deal
with.
That was my favorite few hours of the day –
especially since Michael and I got to do that with Rebecca and Lucas. He’d had to pick between family dinners too,
since it wasn’t an option for Rebecca; but that wasn’t any tougher for him than
it was for me. Jacob’s family only comes
home once or twice a year; and we’ll support Rebecca and Michael because they
do the same for us the rest of the year with our families. While Michael and I were out of the loop for
cooking dinner at his house, that was not the case for the clean-up. We were drafted right along with Rebecca and
Lucas, and since Jacob’s parents are old-school when it comes to guests doing
any work; we did not have relative support for that as we would with my family,
so we were kept busy doing that for about an hour and a half.
By then, there wasn’t much time left for
more than a visit with Michael’s cousins, and then it was time for us to move
on again – to my house for the rest of the evening. My lounge was teen and kid central for the
Proctor clan; and we also had extra overnight guests. Jaimie and Kaitlyn are camping in the lounge
now; and Jayden is doing a sleepover with Ethan in his room. Jonathan isn’t here tonight; but only because
his mother insisted on him spending some time with his own family – and Christina
and Josiah while they’re home for the weekend from college.
Speaking of college, I actually ‘saw’ Jake
and Stephanie more than Violet and Dillon – through a video chat with them live
from New York during dinner at Michael’s house.
Violet and Dillon were on a different schedule than I was for meals; and
she’s staying with his family instead of us while they’re here after getting to
spend the first half of their break with her family in Woodvale. We did cross paths for a minute once; but it
doesn’t look as though I’m going to see them much before they head back to
school on Sunday – especially when I’ll be very busy for the next two days.
Anyway, teen and kid play time in the
lounge, and my room, was a lot of fun; but Michael had to be home early for his
football curfew. The team will be
leaving very early to get to the stadium in time for warm-ups and a
walk-through – the downside of being the smallest of small school
classifications and drawing the first championship match. The good part of that, from my perspective,
is that we’ll have a lot of time left over after the game for fun – whether we’re
celebrating a championship or not.
Moving this along, Michael went home before
Ethan, Ehlana, and Jayden were sent to bed by the parents, and the two boys had
fun playing video games with Chris and Martin right up until getting their
bedtime marching orders. Ehlana spent
that time with Dawn, Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and me.
We split our time between the lounge, my room, and one visit with the
parents and grandparents in the living room.
I haven’t mentioned pro and college football yet, but that was part of
the action at every house today too – at least from the time the first games
started this afternoon. I’m glad that
all of the guys had fun watching parts or all of those games, and I will get
the game stats in time to keep up with the inevitable football talk Tim will be
doing for the rest of the weekend; but game results are not interesting enough
to me to list them here in my journal.
The bedtime girl chat with Dawn, Jaimie,
and Kaitlyn was much more entertaining, and a nice bonus that came along with
having my younger two cousins here for the night was that Chris and Martin didn’t
play video games in the lounge half the night like they had with Jonathan last
night. They instead went down to the
living room not too long after Ethan and Jayden went to bed; watched some
football with some of the other guys; and are now playing video games down
there instead – probably for half the night.
I won’t be staying up for that, though;
since I do have that early wake-up call coming to get ready for my own championship
football-cheerleading adventure trip. We
really have had an awesome Thanksgiving even with all of the crazy-busy, and
there was way more happening than I could ever include in this update, but I
have covered the basics; so it’s time to call it a night and get as much rest
as I can to be ready to cheer my head off for Michael and our team tomorrow –
along with everything else we’ll be doing!
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
