thanksgiving with baker b and the cats in shiny things

Well, just like last Thanksgiving, we’ve spent the day all by ourselves, us and the cats, just lounging around. Because.... it snowed. Yes, November is not over yet and we have already had three significant plan-altering snows. Yeah, not even technically winter yet. I am going to lose.my.mind.

We actually did not have very exciting T’giving plans anyhow, and I confess to not being all that sorry to miss out, but. Still. Our Thanksgivings have been weird for quite a few years now, but I’ll admit it’s kind of sad, because thanks to growing up in an Unusual Religion (ummm.... when did it become Grace Communion International??? It used to be Worldwide Church of God, but this does have the actual history), Thanksgiving was the only holiday we got to celebrate with everyone else in the US. Christmas was out, Easter was out, Halloween was out… Fourth of July was okay but that’s not quite as big an event. Anyhow, Thanksgiving was fine and I always loved it. When I was a kid, my Favorite Aunt would take me and my grandfather to visit my Favorite Cousins (Cousin E, for all who remember her from OD Days) and her sisters in Richmond. We did that from the time I was 7 or so until I was in high school. And I drove myself up when I was in college, at least once. Then when I quit going up there with Aunt Mabel, I’d spend it with my family at my grandmother’s first, then when her health was too poor to host a big to-do, my mom started having it at our house. So that went on for years, until she got sick (Altzheimers, just like her mother, no, I’m sure I’m not doomed, not at all) and then my brother and his wife started having Thanksgiving at their house.

So we did that for quite a few years, even after my mom died, five years ago last July. Then Daddy and I planned a trip to Delaware to see his ailing sister (Favorite Cousins’ Mom) over T’giving a few years ago, and my brother and his wife, who I think were sick of the work and the expense and the stress, decided to go to the beach. And when Daddy and I realized at the last minute that perhaps driving to Delaware over Thanksgiving weekend might be a really really bad idea—too late to just buy plane tickets– they’d made their plans and we ended up having a Cracker Barrel Thanksgiving. Me and Daddy and Baker B.

And that was actually not a bad thing. The food was amazingly good, the wait was not that long, and there was nothing to clean up. Also, no leftovers, which was a little sad. And no socializing with the brother and his wife and kids who we don’t see all that often. I think we did Cracker Barrel Thanksgiving one other time too, but the past two Thanksgivings Baker B and I have gotten snowed in. And then just went down to Asheville a couple of days later to take Daddy out for a belated celebration.

So, it’s okay. The worst thing about the New Thanksgivings is not seeing my brother’s family - it was always the one time we could count on seeing everyone, the three kids and now their kids – but we actually saw them all this past Saturday, when Ex-Goth-Chick had a birthday bash for The Twins (who are FIVE YEARS OLD… how the hell did THAT happen??) and we went down for the day. So, not like we didn’t just see them. And this way we’ll get to see Kim too, who had to work last night and tonight is — insanely— driving to Johnson City Tennessee to meet a friend and do Black Friday Shopping. I am hoping very much that she will not DIE since she just called me en route to Johnson City from Asheville, unable to reach her friend (who is LIKE THAT) and it was snowing like crazy and although I told her to TURN AROUND AND GO HOME she did not. But she’s off Saturday so we’ll actually get to spend quality time with her. Providing she doesn’t wreck in the snow and die.

And we’ll visit Daddy tomorrow evening. We were going to go see Baker B’s mom, but she is not feeling well and wants us to wait till she is. She also had no Thanksgiving. Nor did Daddy, who was NOT invited to go to my SIL’s parents’ house (their new tradition, apparently - her mom has some horrible degenerative disease and is in a wheelchair and it’s easier for them to go to their house) despite the fact that he is good friends with the SIL’s parents and they would probably all three have enjoyed him being there. I don’t know what the hell is up with that, but they NEVER take him, and they go at Christmas too, and yeah, I am a little, shall we say, PEEVED by that.

Well, I did not intend to go on and on and on and on, but that’s what happens when you never write and then finally do make an entry and have so much to yammer on about that you yammer on for ages. I seem to recall vowing in my last entry that I would write often in November. Hahahahahhaha!!! I guess there’s still December.

SO, I hope all you US people had happy Thanksgivings, and mine certainly was not unhappy – I think I just have to adjust to a new kind of Thanksgiving. Actually Kim and I have had this discussion in the past, that we are just going to have to start doing our own little Thanksgiving Celebrations – her sister always does a meal, but insists on eating on the stroke of noon, and since Kim is working nights and worked last night, she could not make it to a noon meal. And their family has, shall we say, issues too. Maybe a FriendsGiving is the thing to aim for next year - no more moping over what’s gone for good; time to create new happy memories!

Also, time to start writing more frequently so I don’t end up writing a novella every few months.