T-Day '24

 

Ah, perhaps my favorite holiday of the year! Thanksgiving, a time for not only giving thanks for what we’ve been blessed with, but also a time of relaxation, reflection, refreshment, and an overall pause from the hectic busyness of life.

 

Thanksgiving and Easter are, hands-down, my favorite holidays of the year. Christmas is a far distant third, as I often find it one of the more stressful stretches of the year (“Spendmas,” endless socializing). But this year, however, I was extremely proactive, and over these past couple of days off for the Thanksgiving holiday I was able to get my Christmas shopping done save for a stocking stuffer or two.

 

Anyway, we had an enjoyable, peaceful couple of days down here in Texas. The weather finally turned brisk, with most days hovering in the high 50s / low 60s with nights dropping down below 40. Little One was home from college since the Saturday before, and Patch was off from school all week too. I worked a full crunch day on Monday with two hours Tuesday morning to get all my November accounting done. After 10 am on Tuesday, I’ve been in holiday mode.

 

The girls spent time with their mom thrifting, holiday shopping, and at the grocery store(s) for our big meal on Thursday. They all caught up on their baking shows and their SVU criminal shows while I listened to my records and read. One afternoon we all watched a corny Hallmark flick and in the evenings put away a couple of episodes of our newest season of 24. Little One and I watched half of Donnie Darko. Patch and I watched some Regular Show episodes. And among all this laying around in front of the tube we all pitched in to clean the house, run last-minute errands, walk the dog, and all the other ephemera a household needs to run. I actually lifted weights and walked a few miles a couple of days.

 

The Mrs. baked a pumpkin pie Wednesday evening, while my girls alternated on dinner duty during the weekdays leading up to Thanksgiving. Me, I don’t cook. I’m the cleaner. I must’ve washed a hundred dishes, glasses and utensils and loaded/unloaded the dishwasher a half-dozen times. But the ladies outdid themselves cuisine-wise. They started early Thursday cooking the turkey (my wife), stuffing, cranberry and carrots (Little One), and sweet potato casserole (Patch). And it was all mouth-watering-ly perfect.

 

Around 2 in the afternoon I made up a charcuterie board – sliced cheddar cheese, soppressata, and crackers. The Mrs. heated up some brie to go along. We had our “appetizers” in the living room along with Margaritas (the ladies) and my favorite fake beer, Run Wild by Athletic Brewing Company. We chatted and relaxed for about an hour, then they all descended upon the kitchen for the last-minute push while I put on the Giants-Cowboys game.

 

Yes, I’m a glutton for punishment; but I haven’t seen the Giants play all year but I have followed them and am rooting for The Tanking. More so that the front office and coaching departments can get shown the door. But they fought valiantly against Dallas, and though they did not win, as expected, they weren’t blow out, which was unexpected. But I got to witness firsthand the sloppy, undisciplined, uninspired, unathletic play of the New York Giants.

 

We still had a few minutes of daylight left before dinner, so the girls and I went outside and tossed around a football. Both my girls can throw a wicked spiral with some mph on it, usually better than I can. It was a fun little callback to their youth when we’d do the same, only in snow. Then we went back in and had one of the best Thanksgiving meals the Mrs. put out ever.

 

 

 

Once the table was cleared we took Charlie the dog on a short car ride to the ponds by my house, where we could walk through brightly-lit life-size Christmas ornaments along the walkway. Upon returning we watched Christmas Vacation and had some pumpkin pie. After that, Little One had to get to bed early as she’d be working in the mall for Black Friday and whatever color Saturday is. The Mrs. was wiped out and she too went to bed early. Patch retired to the “apartment” upstairs to text friends. I let the dog out and crated him for the night, then reclined in my reading chair with my fourth Koontz book, Dragon Tears. Read 80 pages until I, too, could no longer fend off the turkey tryptophan, and hit the hay.

 

A great Thanksgiving. Simple, fun, and just the immediate family. True, we do miss our extended family and our friends throughout the US and feel a little guilty about being so far away, but Facetime is a wonderful thing.

 

Now to gather the strength for Christmas, less than four weeks away …