Happy Thanksgiving!

Hard to believe another Thanksgiving has already come and gone. It seems that holidays take forever to get here, and then just like that, they're over. Well, they are good while they last, and who says family, friends, good food, nice gifts, giving thanks, and overall love should be limited to just a few days in the year?

My Thanksgiving this year was pretty low-key, but I kind of prefer it that way. Fancy parties are nice, but it's also nice to take it easy at home, surrounded by family and good food. I got the day off from work (my hours have been bumped up this week, so things are starting to look up for me...I hope), and my older sister did join us for dessert, bringing some of her kids with her; my niece is spending the night with us. (Lizzie is always looking for an opportunity for a sleepover.)

We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on my laptop, and of course I helped Mom out with the preparations for dinner. I'm usually in charge of cutting the vegetables, and yesterday, I took part in cutting the grapes for our famous cranberry salad; Mom had bought grapes with seeds by mistake, so I spent at least an hour cutting the grapes and gently scraping out the seeds, one grape half at a time. It was actually kind of relaxing (and oddly fun, like that gross fascination you get from picking a scab or popping a pimple or pulling a blackhead), and I played music on my phone for entertainment, although I had to give my hands a good wash afterwards.

Fun fact: I only learned to like my family's cranberry salad when I was a teenager. As a little kid, the fluffy pink stuff didn't appeal to me at all, but when I finally tried it, I realized it wasn't half-bad.

When the meal was ready, I was more than ready to tuck in. The food was excellent and I reached that perfect level of fullness. I even supplied the beverage; my work had a pre-Thanksgiving potluck, and one of my contributions was a liter of soda, but since nobody touched it, I decided to take it home.

We're not big fans of pumpkin pie; I tried it a few times but never developed a taste for it. So for Thanksgiving dessert, we usually have Jello or cake. This year, we decided: let them eat cake! I decorated it myself, and it tasted every bit as good as it looked.

The rest of the day was low-key. As I said, my sister and some of her kids joined us for the dessert, and we watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. For me, it's not Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas until I've seen the "Peanuts" special at least once.

That's about all I have to say for this blog. So, one last time for the road: Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!