thanksgiving, 2011

It was a fine Thanksgiving Day.  Here they are assembling a new shop vac.  Apparently the plumber used ours to suck some noxious substances out of somebody else's drain.

Oh, we got a guy home from college dusting.

And the tables were finally set:

The usual characters were here:

The eating began:

Everybody brought food, and the meal was delicious.

And a family picture was taken outside.

Lydia, aka Kari, had a haircut last week, and when I saw the guy cutting, thought, "That's really SHORT!  I hope she's not mad!"  But no. She'd brought a picture of just this very short haircut, and she was pleased.

It was brave of her, but it definitely suits her.

This girl was also looking fine.



And this guy too.

They didn't fight as much as usual today.  It was pretty nice.

Here's a den of football watchers.

Okay, and these guys were supposedly going to watch Curious George on my bed.

That's fine.

The main question is whether they're eating anything involving crumbs.

They were not.

But shortly My Sweetie, l.c., was the only one watching Curious George while the rest of the rowdies made foolish calls to Dannell's cell phone.  (l.c. is the little one on Jay's pillow.)

Sigh.   Just nobody call 911, okay?

Okay, here's Tim. Today Heidi cornered him for a serious question.

WHY do you store stuff in your CURTAINS??

She'd asked me about it, like it was some argument I have with him, but no.  He started storing stuff in there, and I'm not very strict anymore in my old age.

I just look away. What's it to me?  Do I look like Martha Stewart?

Heidi asked him why?

"For storage, that's all. So things are close by."  (He used to have a book case headboard, but that's gone, so this is apparently the new version of the ever-cluttered headboard.)

Heidi asked how items were sorted.  Tim told her by priority.  In the closest curtain was a box of Kleenex, because if you need Kleenex, you need it right away.

And also his DS.  (The importance of having that close by needs no explanation.)

"And the Bop-It."

That's when Heidi lost it in gales of laughter,  "The BOP-IT!  What do you need that for when you're going to sleep?"

"Well, nothing. But then I know where it is."

She gave me a long, quizzical look, then looked over at her own baby,  p.j., and started laughing again, "I don't know if I can have kids."

Well, they are a little crazy, true, but mostly in a good way.

For life's bringing us around to this holiday one more year, I'm thankful.

And for my parents and my sister and her fine family who brought food and came and ate and laughed today in easy company, thankful.

For this whole life full of family and racket, goofy dogs and love, and involved discussions about  the evolving and confusing nature of life, I'm grateful.

Thank goodness for all of you.  I'm so incredibly glad we have each other.  love always, Val, aka Mom, aka Gramma

p.s. As I'm about to hit the "publish post" button at 11:55 pm, Tim is here with a pillow pet, showing me some substance on it, and he's not happy.  


It's grape jelly, and Julia's fault.


I told him to just put it on the desk and GO TO BED.


How does grape jelly get on a pillow pet at midnight?  I don't even want to know.   Good night and love, Val