Thanksgiving.

It’s been a while. Let’s go – starting the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Megan came by and had dinner with us and hung out. She had just been to a toy modification workshop where to learn to hook up toys to buttons and Edda was thrilled to be her first tester. She loved, loved this monkey which would clap and sing you – you can see the button in Megan’s hand that Edda would push.

We had three sets of guests come and go during thanksgiving week and in order to accommodate them, Jeremy moved his office from one of the bedrooms into our gym. He’s been spending lots of time rearranging things in this room, buying a green screen so he can project an image of his OLD office in this NEW, less pleasing background, office space.

Monday of Thanksgiving week, I ran long at the canal – 1 mile warmup, 9 miles steady – it’s been a long, long time since I’ve done that. And then headed to town center to meet up with Ning, Brian, Noah, Tristan and Mike and Scott who were going to stay at the house until Friday morning. We had brunch at First Watch – a favorite of mine.

What day is this? Wed? Jeremy brings out the turkey(s). Note that in the background is our “standard” setup with the couch in front of the fireplace. Jeremy’s parents arrive during the day.

Wed afternoon, we pay a visit to Scott’s mom and walk around the cemetery with Elka. Scott left flowers, I left an orange. We walked and did some tomb sweeping for other people.

Thursday morning, we move the house around to the “party” configuration. Mike runs out to get ice. We busy ourselves cleaning up. I find our decorative turkey centerpieces.

By four o’clock, the house is bustling. My mom starts off with her famous egg roll appetizers. (Vince didn’t come home, he celebrated with Dani on the left coast and he made egg rolls for their friendsgiving).

I was like – oh, there aren’t going to be kids at the party, but I had pretty much forgotten about the 7 or 8 that showed up.

I want to give us kudos for having a very diverse holiday feast. We had white people, Jewish people, Black people, Asian people and Hispanic people – all the peoples. Are you hungry? Come to our house, we’ll feed you.

So much pie – we even had two frozen pies that we could not bring ourselves to bake. They are saved for another time.

So we had too much food. Turkey sandwiches for days – which I do enjoy. It’s like twice as much food as we needed. We’d never had ham before, but we did it this year, and people devoured it. Maybe it was the only dish that got finished.

So we moved the couch to the old dining room. Now, about this couch – it’s my birthday couch that I bought myself this year to celebrate, not only my birthday, but also that I finished paying for Vince’s college – so proud of myself and I wanted to splurge. So not an IKEA couch, but a Room & Board couch – a step up, an “adult” couch. We’ve only bought one other “adult” couch (from Crate and Barrel) when we were young with two professional jobs and no kids and it still lives – incredibly stained, but sturdy! in one of the upstairs bedrooms. The new couch was delivered in mid-October and immediately, I realized that people LOVE to eat on couches. Like everyone – I even love to eat on couches. And I was nervous about this because…new couch. And then I decided I didn’t want to be that person to tell people to not eat on the new precious couch. Nor did I want to be the person who covered up the couch with plastic and then unveil it for special occasions (which, wouldn’t Thanksgiving count as a special occasion?). So I didn’t tell anyone to not eat on the couch and then I had an entire slew of kids eating chocolate and gravy on the new couch and I tried to not flip out. I’m patiently waiting for the first stains to happen and then I will not care anymore. I realize this is not a very Thanksgiving post, more like a grinch-y post.

There were dog outings.

So we decided to leave the house in party mode for at least this winter season. We are keeping this cozy living room nook. Tian Pei asked for a formal portrait before he left.

Whimsey sat on Edda’s lap for a little while. Katherine and I are both wearing coats given to us from the husbands of our dead friends (long story).

And then everyone was out of the house by Saturday morning. And then I started in on the holiday decorating. We aren’t hosting Xmas here at the house, so sometimes you feel like maybe one doesn’t want to set up the tree and lights. But I’m trying to declutter enough that the only stuff in storage is Christmas stuff and so, if I’m going to store it, I want to use it too. And the lights are very pretty and the ornaments are sentimental. I know there is a thing where there is more than one tree in the house and that the “pretty” tree is on display and the “family” tree tucked away in a playroom or bedroom, but I’m a one tree kind of girl. Also, I love our tree from 2006, we had to go through the middle years where it seem old and out of fashion and now I think we are firmly in its vintage era which makes me happy. It’s not old, it’s vintage!

Always, so thankful for everything. With love to you all.