thanksgiving and the day after

Thanksgiving was wonderful. My family followed along traditional lines and met up with my mom's side of the family at my aunt & uncle's house. I think we had 23 people there... it was a whole lot of fun. My cousin Lydia (10 years old) made up placards for everyone so we all had assigned seating. She's the best - she wrote on the inside of every person's placard the things she was thankful for, regarding that particular person. I can't think of a whole lot of 10 year-olds that would come up with that kind of a plan & implement it all on their own! Anyhow, all the "adults" (my grandparents, their children & spouses) were at one table, and all us grand kids & great grand kids were at the other table. I must admit... we had a great 'kids' table! My favorite food part of the meal - the mashed potatoes, hands down. I think they were THE very best mashed potatoes I've ever eaten. Really. They were spectacular.

Then, for a light supper, we headed over to my dad's parents' apartment. (They live in a retirement home.) Not that we needed more food... certainly not by any means! But it's important to go see them too. My grandma makes the best sugar bread. Actually... I've never had sugar bread that anyone else has ever made. But it's still the best! We visited with them for awhile then jetted. We had plans to make.



Black Friday plans, that is... It's been a part of our Thanksgiving-weekend routine for the past couple of years. This year was fairly understated, which was good. Past years have included a 5-way phone call the night before... and past years also may have included a spreadsheet. :)

This year, thanks to some internet shopping (thank you, thank you Al Gore/whoever actually invented the internet), the only stores to hit in the morning were Target and ABC Warehouse. Since I've been on a much different sleeping schedule than the rest of the fam (I generally sleep from 2 or 3am until 10 or 11am), they were all gracious enough to let me sleep this year! I met up with them for breakfast, of course... some things are indeed worth getting up for.