Play-by-Play Thanksgiving

1. Me, the wife, Little One, and Patch spent 100 hours at my parent’s spacious home in the peaceful PA woods.

2. Thanksgiving dinner was, as always, delicious and filling. My favorite: sweet potatoes. Crazy and loud afternoon with my brother’s family driving over. Little One and her little cousin got in trouble by spilling deer feed all over the garage floor.

3. Enjoyed satisfying Jets and Giants wins, plus a win by Chicago over Philly as a bonus.

4. Watched the young’uns have an awesome time with their grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. They truly are little performers, little extroverts-in-training, high-kicking like Rockettes and singing, running, flipping, somersaulting, laughing, and giggling all through the house.

5. Very proud of my oldest daughter, who read Sammy the Seal and Dinosaur Hunter with me for her November book report. Included were sentences describing three scenes from each book accompanied by very cute drawings of seals and triceratops bones.

6. Read 80 pages of Ben-Hur, and 220 pages of Hobbits, Elves, and Wizards, an appreciative literary analysis of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings by a professor who genuinely loves the work.

7. Also read one of my long short stories, “The Minnicks”, up in the loft. Quite satisfying and better than I remembered, if you forgive me the self-pat on the back.

8. A great Friday afternoon with my hilarious uncle and his family stopping by; listened to Young Padowan play his guitar for us. (Plus, I got to play it, too, which was fun.)

9. Group-viewed the classic Christmas Vacation, easily the best holiday-themed comedy ever made. A family tradition to watch it right after Thanksgiving, dating back to the early 90s. We pretty much can quote the darn thing line-by-line.

10. Little One and Patch got to see Santa at Papa’s golf club buffet. We snapped some pretty good digital pics, plus some of them in front of the Christmas tree. Captured this year’s card photo.

11. I drove home by myself Saturday night. Fed Indigo the Fish. Hibernated for 9 hours (still fighting a slight cold). Did my Eucharistic Minister duties Sunday morning, then motored back over to PA for Sunday afternoon and evening. Listened to a bunch of informative and inspiring books-on-CD in the process.

12. Got my hair buzzed short. And I mean short. But you’ve read about that already.

13. Scored a pair of awesome SF paperbacks from my outta-state used book store: Cycle of Fire (1957) by Hal Clement and Flandry of Terra (1957-61) by Poul Anderson. Read classic novella “The Game of Glory” from the latter novel one afternoon.

14. Laughed with my honey watching a half-dozen Big Bang Theory Season 3 episodes. It’s our current favorite show on the tube.


Overall, Thanksgiving for us is the best four-day sequence of the year. Can’t wait for next year.