Saturday, Nov. 26, 2005 1:27 am
Recap of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was a big success. The rest of the family arrived Wednesday. It took me a while to get through with work so they were all here when I got home. When I walked in the door my parents announced they wanted to take us all to dinner. I was stressed and harried and my sister could tell. I didn't want to be anywhere but home. So we hurried the parents and the nephews out to go have dinner, just the four of them. We opened a bottle of wine and ate the Chex mix and sat out on the swing and enjoyed the night. It was very pleasant. Mark went off to his gig eventually and the parents and nephews came home. I had to go off to my gig so my sister went with me to that. It was a pretty good night. Stoney was playing and I hadn't seen him in a long time. He was funny and the band was tight. I wanted to stay longer, but I also wanted to be home. When my time was up, we went on home.
A joke he told: An aide comes in to the President and says, "Mr. President, in Irag this morning, two Brazilian soldiers were killed." The President is shocked and expresses his sadness, "Oh, that is just horrible, I cannot believe that has happened, that is terrible news.... now, remind me once again, how many is a brazillion?"
Yesterday I got up and made a pecan pie to start off. I had already made pumpkin Wednesday morning and left before it was through, leaving it to my Mom to take out of the oven. I made the pecan and baked the sweet potatoes. After that we had a crisis of oven space. I hadn't really thought about the oven space needed to heat up turkey, cook dressing, bake a potato casserole, baked creamed spinach, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and hot rolls. It was quite a juggling act, but I somehow managed to get everything to some degree of hot and cooked and had lunch on the table by 1:45, in hopes of being through before the Cowboys kickoff.
We set up tables in the living room and all were able to share one table. By the next big family occasion I need a new card tables or something to make it work a little better. But it worked and everything was lovely.
We watched Cowboys and some began on the pies and cakes and fudge and cookies at that point, but I was too tired to move and just lay on the floor. I had also managed to WASH all the dishes before the Cowboys began.
After the Cowboys lost Mom and Dad went on back to their motel. We ate the creamed spinach as a dip and watched TV. Finally we all went on to bed and I crashed hard.
This morning everyone was back at the house again for coffee and more pumpkin bread and rolls and cake and fudge and Chex mix. Mom and Dad got on the road just as the Texas game kicked off and got underway. The rest of the family wasn't far behind. Mom cared about watching the game, I know, but no one else cared much. It was nice to have my whole couch back to stretch out on. Eight people in our little living room doesn't leave much room for lounging, except on the floor.
I watched the game and bit my nails until Texas finally pulled ahead and stayed ahead. It was a good game... though a little too close. I slept on the couch some afterward until Seth got here and the band left for Houston. Then I slept good on the bed for a long time and did some major catch-up. I am no good at sleeping when there are people in the house and food to be prepared.
Nathan just stretched and put a paw on my arm. It fell off my arm so he stretched and put it back there. What a sweet boy. Just laying on the desk with one paw on the crook of my right elbow. He is my little muse.
Speaking of muses. I sure used up all my vim on cooking and entertaining the last two days and haven't had any vim for the book. I wanted to get back into the swing of things tonight and didn't manage (yet). Tomorrow for sure. Tomorrow I can settle down for at least two hard hours and get to 40,000. Still need that finale, though. It's coming. I can feel it coming.