Our annual family Thanksgiving at my mom’s place was lovely, as usual. There were a couple of notable absences, however. My aunt and uncle, who usually join us for the occasion, were understandably recovering and resting at home after the rollercoaster of my grandmother’s final couple of weeks in Florida. Their daughter and her husband, who moved to California earlier this year, were also greatly missed.
For the first time in a long time, this meant that my father’s side of the family was not represented at the table, and the repast wasn’t quite the same. We all enjoyed lots of laughs this evening with my mother’s sister and her family, and my brother and his wife, but it was definitely a little quieter than usual.
Sophie was out of sorts – we think she may be coming down with a cold. She didn’t eat anything for dinner, but she did have enough energy to watch countless clips from the “Wizard of Oz” on the computer. Her new favorite song – “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.”
Chloe discovered the game of Boggle, and had almost all of us playing at one point or another before the big meal. She lost most of the rounds, but she didn’t mind. She made up new spellings for words, but she didn’t mind that either. In fact, it was one of the few games that Chloe didn’t mind losing – and she even said so before we started playing.
Tomorrow is Black Friday and I’ve never gone shopping on Black Friday. I’m turning 40 in a couple of weeks and feel like I should experience at least one Black Friday before hitting the big milestone. But I think I’ll skip it – I know my limitations, one of which is patience. I have none, and I think I’d need a lot of it to survive the throngs.