Thanksgiving

We had a very nice Thanksgiving Day, shared with lots of friends. And when I say lots, I mean on the scale of what our family gatherings were when we were in California.

We were invited to some friends' (made by way of kids in the same class) house, then to the movies (warning: movie spoilers included) and then to another family's house for dessert and games.

We shared the dinner preparations; Heather and I brought Risotto with Butternut Squash Pancetta and Jack Cheese, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole and Pumpkin pies. The rest of the nice dinner was prepared by the Sansings.

It was never my family's tradition to go to the movies after Thanksgiving dinner, but it was Heather's and evidently the Sansing's as well. I now understand why it makes a good tradition - two dessert courses.

Usually, I would eat a gigantor dinner and then a gigantor dessert and then I would just want to roll into a corner and take a nap. This time, I ate a gigantor dinner, followed by a moderate dessert and then a break for the movie. Then, I was able to come back for a second dessert after the break. Twice as much dessert!

We went to see Happy Feet as our break movie. The first half of the movie was pretty cute, about Mumbles the penguin was different (he couldn't sing and couldn't find his heartsong, but boy could he dance). Then it started to get dark and environmental and political as Mumbles went on his quest to find the aliens who were taking all the fish. Mumbles even ends up in a zoo after floating up on the beach in front of an oil refinery. It got dark enough that I was really wondering how they were going to get back to the cute penguins and finish the kid story.

After the move we went to another house and there were easily 50 people and kids there. There were tons of desserts and I didn't see my kids from the moment they walked in until they were told dessert was going to be put away.

I met a whole lot of new and friendly people and even played adult games. No, not adult games, but games with adults! No Hi Ho Cherry O here!

One of the really nice things about the day was getting to see other people's houses. Our house is pretty plainly painted on the interior, all white walls, white carpet. It is nice to see what other people have done in terms of earthy reds, greens and yellows on the walls. I think that this has also helped us decide that we want to replace our kitchen counter tops with granite. Yep, that is quite an expensive project, but we are thinking about it seriously. I'm sure it will turn into a blogging series.

Happy Thanksgiving to every one!