The Annual Weekend of Turkey & Shopping

This is probably the most varied weekend we have all year.  Potentially anyway.  For many people it's a long weekend because they (or their employer) chooses to take Friday off in addition to the Thanksgiving holiday.  At the very least, I see it as a 3-part weekend: Thanksgiving Thursday, Black Friday, and the standard 2-day weekend making up the 3rd part.

Part One:  Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving was kind of an uneventful day really.  I enjoyed hanging around the house in my robe during the morning with Suzie as usual, with the crackling woodstove providing ambiance.  Sarah texted me at one point--pretty pumped about the fact that she would be able be at my parents' house with all the rest of us for the entire time this year.  Usually she works and has to show up late.  This year she did work, but it was a morning shift so she got off an hour before our family feast was due to start.

The family dinner went well.  As I've blogged so many times before, you never know what my dad is going to blow up about or what his general mood will be.  I only stifled him one time this year, and a minute later it was like nothing even happened.  We had a medium crowd.  In addition to myself, my parents, and Sarah, all three of my local siblings showed up.  Actually, they usually do, but we were wondering this year about Denis and Kim because they had announced an impending marital split.  We were surprised (well, I was anyway--I never hear anything gossipy) to see them show up together.  That's good!  Daughter Cassady even made it over from the other side of the state where she's attending WSU, arriving with her boyfriend, Aaron.  Denise and son Jesse (daughter Emma was in North Carolina with her Army fiance' this year) were there.  As usual, Jesse's fiance', Amy, spent it with her family.  We see her seldom, and when she does show up I never see her interact with the family.  Shy maybe?  Jackie showed up alone this time.  Unfortunately, Gary's mom passed away the day before.  She was a neat lady--I met her several times.  Finishing up the gathered family members was Jackie's daughter, Janie and her husband Aaron.  We had some good eats, some good drinks, and some good conversation.  The usual Williams wackiness just made sporadic appearances.  For example, the pictured wines above.

Part Two:  Black Friday

Black Friday was different this year.  It actually started on Thursday night.  I had been watching the "advance ads" online for a certain item and had it pretty much narrowed down and knew where I was going to have to be to get it, but wasn't thrilled about having to be in a madhouse crowd at midnight.  After careful consideration (or a moment of clarity), I opted to pay an additional 5 bucks for shipping and shopped from my computer chair.  I actually did that Thanksgiving morning.  Suzie opted to stop by Walmart on her way home from JW Meeting and soon realized the error of her ways when she had to park two blocks away from the edge of their parking lot.  After walking in the rain and wind, dodging drivers with their Black Friday blinders on (in other words, ignoring pedestrians), she finally got to the store only to find no indication that the item she was after ever existed to begin with.  Overall, it was a bad experience and she came home Thursday night feeling a little anger toward the whole "midnight madness" aspect of Black Friday, and rightly so.  It's a no-win situation unless you're willing to brave insult, injury, inconvenience, and mayhem--all for the sake of saving a few bucks.  Sarah, on the other hand, was totally pumped about it.  She is a working girl now and proud of it.  She has always enjoyed the camaraderie of going Black Friday shopping with her mom and her moms friend, Noelle.  This is the first year that I noticed she had a different outlook.  She had control, confidence, and was calling some of her own shots.  She's a real shopper now!  I found her choice of words interesting (I think it was yesterday) when I got a text from her saying that she had 'picked up a shift' at work that enabled her to pay for all  her shopping.  Working girl lingo.

Friday afternoon Suzie and I did some front yard work (trimming the dead and removing leaves) while the weather was nice, then groomed ourselves for a night at Kevin and Shirley's house for a giant meal.  It was a blast.  When I compare that meal to the meal at my folks' house the day before, there was one major difference:  Children.  With none at my parents' house the element of chaos is missing.  Not so at Kevin and Shirley's house!  It was filled with noise and fun like any good family get-together should be.  I had a great time.

Part Three:  The rest of the weekend

Hmm... Hard to blog about the rest of the weekend when it's still underway isn't it?  Let me just say that we had a pleasantly lazy day yesterday.  I think we were expecting a nasty weather day and planned nothing accordingly.  Imagine our surprise when the day actually turned out not too bad.  That prompted us to at least go out and run a few errands but that's about it.  One of those errands was the giant pizza we picked up at Papa Murphy's, so pizza, a new (and good) movie called Super 8, and hot-tubbing rounded out our Saturday.

Let's see what today brings!