Our turkey was out of the oven before noon. I'd made cranberry sauce to bring along to the dinners we were attending and split the giant batch of Devil cookies into two containers. The sun was out, the air was frigid and we were ready to go give thanks to God for all our blessings until we popped. Or pooped. Both work.
First stop was Pam and Steve's where dozens of Pivecs joined to appreciate what a great life we have in the Greatest Nation ever established under God's blue sky. There were several new members of the family; some of whom had been around for years and just made it legal this summer and others who were brand new.
Matt and Janelle had come up from Indiana with their boys, the six year old twins. Julie and her daughter had come up from Arizona. It's always great fun to be able to see these family members who went off to establish family outposts in different parts of the country. The kids are growing up too fast and are cuter than all get out. The best part is that they all seem to get along very well, despite only getting to see each other once a year or so. I know it's possible to keep them all connected; we've done it on my side of the family too. Even in the age before Facebook, Twitter or text messaging, if you want your kids to know their cousins, it wasn't that hard to do.
In addition to the out of towners were two new babies born since late summer. One boy, one girl, both just about as gorgeous as you can imagine. There were a lot of grandmas on hand, vying for a chance to cuddle these tiny ones but I got my fair share of baby time. As usual, the food was great but the company even better.
We spent the afternoon with the Pivecs then as the sun set, moseyed over to my brother's house to do it again with the Hubbells. Not all were in attendance; the St. Paul Hubbells usually do Thanksgiving with Heidi's family. This makes perfect sense but we missed them. Heck, I'm not sure any of us actually live in places big enough to host a party for either the entire Pivec or Hubbell clan. This summer we packed an apple orchard and a few years ago we filled South Dakota. And there were several members missing from those events as well.
There were no new babies on the Hubbell side, since the newest member is Babalouie and he stayed in Texas. Babalouie and Babydoll have three new cousins younger than he is now, since a new little nipper joined the Sodak crew this fall.
Again, the food was amazing but the company even better. Andy and Vi live less than a mile from us so it was an easy skip. They moved into a large, beautiful house with a walk out lower level and an enormous back yard a couple of years ago. This was the second year that they hosted Thanksgiving and it really works even better than my parents house. Mom and Dad's place (which is less than a mile from Steve and Pam's' we never had to travel very far between parties) is open and big but not as big as Andy's. Andy and Vi remodeled the kitchen of their house in '13, incorporating a small den off the kitchen into what is now a huge kitchen/great room which flows into a dining room and large living room. As Andy pointed out, it's very open but not too much; when you live with a lot of little kids, you want to be able to escape them without hiding in the basement. I love their house. And the new kitchen is the perfect blend of beautiful and functional. It doesn't have two of each appliance, like Margy's kitchen but they don't do the kind of high level entertaining that Margy does. Which is really ironic because when we were younger, Margy couldn't cook or throw a party and now she excels at both.
I talked to Zack in the morning and he was already at his cousins house. They were all heading to Margy's for dinner later.
Full of food and good cheer, we were ready to head home by nine. If that seems early, let me just point out that the revelry started shortly after noon. Josie could have stayed later at Andy's and hitched a ride from her sister and brand new brother in law but she had Black Friday plans with a friend and was ready to head out into the awful and stand in line in the hopes of making some amazing scores.
You couldn't pay me to go shopping today. If you offered me a free car and all I had to do was stay up all night, waiting in the dealership parking lot, I'd say 'No thanks, I'd rather sleep.' That's one of the best parts of middle age; your priorities are in order.
I know; some people love it. I say that's their problem.
It snowed a bit after we got home last night. It was beautiful.
Now I'm ready to get back to work.
Work is one of the things I'm very, very thankful for.