Holidays, v2.2

The Things are spending Thanksgiving with John this year, as you may recall from my attempts to find non-Thanksgiving like ways to spend the holiday*. The way visitation and all that works out, they'll be spending the weekend before Thanksgiving with him as well. Last night we sat around the dinner table--it was tuna sandwiches and apples and pretzels because we were about to go to the library and who the hell has time to cook a hot meal AND go to the library on the same night, I ask you?--and I asked them if they wanted some sort of Thanksgiving celebration with me.

The Things all got quiet for a second, which never happens unless they are asleep and/or drugged simultaneously. Let me repeat, for effect, the infrequency with which this happens.

They stayed quiet for a good long while--at least 45 seconds--before Thing One, as the resident ring leader, spoke up. "I think we should do something," she said.

Thing Three agreed, and Thing Two added that he thought we should celebrate by going to a pizza place and playing video games.

Thing One rolled her eyes. "We are not going to have pizza," she said**.

We discussed. We argued. We ate tuna sandwiches. We agreed on something.

So, this Saturday, we're having ThanksEarly--named by Thing Two--which will include a festive dinner (roast chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie) and a night of game playing (probably I will get rooked into playing Monopoly on Thing Three's team, which sucks because the combined mental power of Things One and Two is nearly impossible to topple). It's Thanksgiving, only a few weeks early.

*tm

*As it turns out, I will not be taking a road trip for Thanksgiving as I had hoped. No funds for that sort of thing, and no time, since I just found out I will be working the day after the holiday. However, Friend R is hosting an event, and has not only invited me, but asked me to come out the day before, help him clean and stay the night in the cabin he'll be at. So, I think I'll be safe from the holiday blues.

**The Things' elementary school has an annual Thanksgiving lunch parents can attend. It's usually the day before the break. When Thing One was in first grade, John and I went. We got there early, as many of the parents did, and the teacher motioned for all of us to sit in the back of the classroom as she finished up a circle time. On this particular day she was reading a story on the first Thanksgiving. She would read a page, then ask the circle of six-year olds at her feet what they thought happened next. At one point, the teacher asked what happened after the first meeting between the Pilgrams and the Native Americans. Thing One raised her hand, and when called on, said in a cheery voice, "And then they killed them with smallpox blankets!"

I covered my face with my hands.

Comments

[kari]

happy ThanksEarly

[LynnKK]

I hope you are saving money to send Thing One to stand-up comedy camp. The world needs her stand up comedy. More importantly, I need it. Please.
And Happy ThanksEarly. I think I will celebrate it this year too, as one can never have too many turkey left overs.

[Friend One]

1. I love that story about Thing One. It's a favorite.

2. ThanksEarly is a brilliant idea. I'm glad you're doing it.

3. Damn you, I want to go out to the Nature Writer Lady's cabin with you and Friend R! No fucking fair!