Gobble Gobble

Wrapping up the weekend while watching the predictable destruction of the Colts by San Diego.¹

First off, we had a happy and healthy Thanksgiving, and hope you did, too. We had 20 people in our home Thursday for dinner. I cooked two turkey breasts², brought in a ham, and then added the usual trimmings. Other than that mad dash in the last hour to try to get everything cooked and warmed in one oven, I thought we pulled it off successfully. The girls were reasonably well-behaved and our guests seemed to enjoy themselves.

Perhaps the highlight of the day came while we were eating. Poor L. was a bit overwhelmed by all the excitement and our many guests. Shortly after we put a plate in front of her, she decided it was naptime. Poor kid. Naturally, I took a picture. Father of the year!

No Thanksgiving is complete without popping disk two of my Cheers Season Five DVD set into the player and watching the “Thanksgiving Orphans” episode. 24 years later, it’s still a fine piece of television comedy, especially when coupled with a fine Scotch. Then came the big bonus of the first USA Network showing of Elf for the season. I was full of holiday cheer (and scotch) by bedtime.

I think Black Friday is my least favorite day of the year. You can’t take the kids to the mall or restaurants, since they’re overrun. So you’re stuck in the house with a bunch of hyper kids who are excited about not being in school. Throw in cold weather, and we were locked in the house trying to figure out how in the hell to entertain these monkeys. We broke down and unpacked some of the holiday decorations to distract them. I went into the front yard to put up our lighted Santa. Sadly only two of Santa’s three segments will light up. I spent 30 minutes in the cold swapping out fuses and trying different cords to no avail. So we have an unlit Santa in the yard, much to the girls’ chagrin. The rest of the decorations inside did keep them occupied a bit, though.

Saturday we bought our tree and put it up. The girls were very excited to help, and placed about 30 ornaments on the same three branches. It took some parental clean-up to properly distribute the ornaments.

We put the kids to bed Saturday and I had a couple hours to waste before the KU-Arizona game began. What better way to fill that time than to finish my novel? Well, I finished the 50,000 word requirement for NaNoWriMo, but I wouldn’t say I finished the novel. There’s still work to be done, even for a clumsy effort like this. But I knocked out the words and claimed my digital prize. I’ll offer some more detailed thoughts on the process later this week.

Sunday we attempted to take pictures for our Christmas card. It’s always a tough job trying to get three girls to focus and smile and keep their clothes in decent shape. Sunday was apparently the wrong day to try. My sister-in-law shot over 300 images, and none were perfect. Much of the 30-45 minutes we shot included some kind of pleading/yelling/shouting at the girls to sit down and look at the camera and smile. Someone was always refusing or standing up or messing with their sister or pouting or making a stupid face. I think we have a cute card, but it could have been cuter and the frustration of fighting the girls had S. and I agreeing afterwards we won’t try this again for a few more years.

And that was Thanksgiving at the B’s’.