thankful

Melissa was off Sunday, yesterday, and today, but has to work on Thursday, so our Thanksgiving was going to need to be held some day other than Thursday. Half of her Sunday is taken up with church, so that wasn't a good option. Monday would've worked, but Megan would have had to head back to the dorm as soon as dinner was over and likely would have lost crucial study time, so that wasn't a good option either. Damn, it's near impossible anymore for us to all be able to find time that is convenient for all of us anymore!   ; (   However, today was Megan's last day of classes before the break, so it was decided that today would be our Thanksgiving.

Melissa had a "scaled back" menu, of which I really talked her down from, but was still enough to feed an army. Dad doesn't eat poultry ("they're such filthy animals" -- but pigs aren't? ... anyway), so we had turkey and Dad ate liver and onions for the main course. Then there were the many side dishes consisting of the traditional green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, cornbread casserole, yam biscuits, cranberry relish, spiced apple jell-o, cookies, brownies, and, of course, pumpkin pie -- and this was SCALED back -- yeesh! there were only five of us eating!

I filled my plate and tried sampling a bit of everything (except the liver and onions of course -- blech! I never have developed a taste for that) but there was only so much room on the plate. Ironically, I couldn't fit the cranberry jelly/sauce/whatever (you know the can stuff) that I love and demanded to have. I did make a point to go back and get some on the second round, though.

I stuffed myself. So much so, that although I *wanted* a piece of pumpkin pie, there was no way! It would have to wait until things .... settled.

While Dad was searching around on the idiot box for something to watch and having little luck, I suggested we put a movie in. It has just about become tradition for us to pop in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" every Thanksgiving, and since we were all here and Dad likes the movie, we kept that "tradition" alive for another year. We all laughed off a couple calories.

He soon headed off to bed, and Megan suggested we top off the evening with what may well be the best audio/visual collaborative effort ever. For about a month now her and I been wanting to watch "Labyrinth" featuring the collective talents of David Bowie and Jim Henson. If you have never seen this and like the Muppets do yourself a favor and watch it!

Isaac had also headed off to bed and Melissa was going to, but decided to stay instead and laugh off a few more calories with us. By now, I finally had room for that piece of pie.  ; )

What a great family night! Man I miss those. It sure is a rare thing these days. It's not anyone's fault, just that now that the kids are "grown" they have their own things to do and now we work around that as well as whatever we may have going on. It sure does make you appreciate the time you do get to share as a group. I am thankful they tolerate me.