What a wonderful wonderful holiday. We were blessed to have KC come home on Tuesday night and for Rob to come in for Thanksgiving Day and spend that night here with us as well. He was also here to help decorate the house for Yule and that was so special.
The house rang with laughter. I'm still not used to how quiet the house is with only two of the kids at home. We are still very connected--thank goodness for texting--but we are moving into a different phase of our parenthood. So I savor all the times we are able to be together, bask in their banter, and make everyone's favorite foods.
This Thanksgiving was also special because my mom and my FIL (who is Dad to me) were here, as well as my beloved SIL. We had two friends who are usually with us and who had to bow out at the last minute because of illness. Truthfully with 2 90 year olds at the table I am grateful that they did, though they were definately missed. But my mom has not been at Thanksgiving with us in many many years. She lived out out state and neither her husband, or later her partner were able to make such a long trek to our home. I could tell that even though she lives close by now, she too was tired when the festivities were done. One thing that was weird and hard for me was that Fiona was not with us. She has moved to a shared living residence much closer to first family members and the Big City. I truly can not drive there. I also thought her first family were getting her for the day but she spent it with the family of her shared living provider. She seemed to have a good day and we Face Timed each other, but I missed her. I am not her guardian any longer but she is always my daughter in my heart and we are still in touch a lot. Again, thank goodness for the Internet!
There was food aplenty. We had many pies, I made three batches of parker house rolls, we had giant turkey, I made mac and cheese and sauteed greens. There were mashed potatos, squash, carrots and corn. I also made rolled sugar cookies shaped and decorated like fall leaves. No one left this house hungry or without a doggie bag!
Thanksgiving night, I took down a lot of the harvest decor, the kids put the living room back to rights (we have to move out all our furniture so that we have room for the tables) and we watched our first Christmas movie of the season together--Spirited.
Friday we did almost all our indoor decorating. KC and I watched a movie together that night as well. We adore the movie Jingle Jangle but are the only 2 in the family who love it so it was just us. Rob headed back home to Maine and we all went to bed early!
Saturday I made the cemetary boxes, and KC and I went to my mom's and helped her decorate her apartment and had lunch with her. We had lots of time for KC to talk one on one with her about his college experiences so far. He used to text her daily before school began and they are both missing the fact that there is not time for that now. While KC and I were gone, Elisabeth did an amazing surprise for me. I always decorate the tops of our upper kitchen cabinets. She got red ribbon and bows and turned the door fronts into lovely packages. It really looks amazing and I absolutely adore it. It is extra special as Elisabeth has never been one to be super excited about decorating. KC has always been the one for that (and Rob's special thing is the tree) So to have her plan this herself and do it for me, is a huge and special gift. That night we all went to see the new MCU movie The Marvels. The movie has really been panned but we loved it and I suppose I would have loved anything really as we were all together and having fun.
Saturday night Elisabeth had her two best friends sleep over and this morning, I had to drive KC back to school. He won't be back for two weeks as he has rehearsal commitments at school. But he will be back the weekend of December 9th and his gift this year to Chet and I is to go see Elf on the big screen! We are both excited for that. Elf is one of our favorite movies. Can you get a sense for how really big the holidays are here?
Tonight it is back to reality. Elisabeth has Friendsgiving with the Youth Group tonight and while she is there, I'll be at work. I took Wednesday off and we were closed the rest of the week so I have had a long luxurious break from the office. But tomorrow it will be busy there and I have no office staff in that day except me, so it will be best to have this done ahead of time.
I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was what you needed and wanted at this moment in time, and that the coming weeks bring times of light, and joy.
