Day After Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving was strange this year.  It was the first one since my mom died at the end of September.  I kept looking for her, kept waiting for her to call and find out what time I'd be bringing the family over.

I went to my brother's house and had a fine dinner.  We didn't talk about Mom but you could tell we were all staying away from the subject.  I'm 52.  Been through a lot.  I know everything's going to be okay, but it's just different.

We had crawling grandkids this year.  A two year old boy and an eight month old girl.  It was nice to watch them and not be in trouble for anything they did.  :)

Another weird thing happened too.  I found out my kids read my post on the ice cream thing and thought it was funny.  One of them even read it aloud to the others.  I would think twentysomethings would have better things to do.

At least they thought it was humorous and not time to stick Dad in the old folks home.  The first time I lose bladder control that'll probably change, though.

Three of the four kids that are living outside my house showed up at my brother's and it was nice to have them.  One of my goals in the next year or so is to build a bigger kitchen/dining area.  Our house is small.  It's paid for.  A bad thing and a good thing.  Everytime we all get together, we have meet at a restaurant so we can all sit and talk.  Sherry and I want a big room and a big table.  We both like to cook.

We're post-Thanksgiving now and Sherry and I have already been shopping for things to make.  I've got two cheesecakes in the oven as I write this, with pumpkin pies and Jell-O pies still to go.  Sherry is making pecan, chocolate, coconut cream, apple, and some other things.  She's also making ham spread.

It's hard to get together during the holidays.  Everybody has somewhere else they have to be.  So Sherry and I have developed a tradition of "grazing" during the weekend after the major holidays.  We fix a bunch of food and send it off with the kids as they stop by.  Bribery, I suppose.  But they come to use and we don't have to spend a lot of time on the road.

These years are strange.  Only have one child at home so the noise level is almost nothing.  At least the house smells like baking things and we'll have visitors throughout the day.