Pleasant

The visit we had for Thanksgiving turned out pretty well… better than I would have expected, overall.

I got home at a fairly reasonable time on Wednesday, and Megan’s parents and my sister and her boyfriend were already there. We talked a bit, and I was starving, because part of my lunch had been inedible, so I was running on about 400 calories total by that point in the day, and had run two miles before lunch. We ended up making pasta with meatballs and Italian sausage for dinner, since it was quick and we had all of the ingredients. I did that, and my sister helped a bit, and it turned out well. I felt much better after I had eaten, and we had a bit of wine with dinner, which was also nice. We then just talked for a while until my mom, sister, nieces and nephews arrived around 10. We then talked a bit more, and then went to bed, since we were going to have a lot to do the next day.

We got up relatively early on Thanksgiving, because Megan had been freaking out about how we were going to get everything made in time, even though she wasn’t the one doing it. Anyway, we got up, and the kids were already awake, so we made cinnamon buns and scones out of tubes, made a pot of coffee, and then got the turkey started. I managed to make a really intricate interlocking of dishes cooked all at the same time, and I would say that, at least as far as planning goes, this was my most successful Thanksgiving yet. There was a time during the cooking that felt weird, because while I could have done things, I didn’t need to, so I went and watched the parade and spent time with people while they did crafts and such. It was nice to get to have some down time in there, and lots of people volunteered to help, which was nice, but I had a hard time coming up with things for them to do, because I am so used to just doing it, myself. Anyhow, everything came together, and turned out well. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, or at least most of it (some of the kids, in particular, didn’t try everything), and we had a nice meal. Afterwards, Megan’s parents cleaned up, since they weren’t really involved in the preparation, which was nice of them, and much appreciated. After we ate, I don’t really remember what we did. I think maybe people split off to do different things. We may have played a game together. Eventually, Megan and I got started on making pies, since we had dinner at lunch time, so we were having pies at dinner time. I made the chocolate, and Megan and her mom made the apple, and I got the lemon meringue started, and it took a really long time, and was not going to be ready that night. Once we got it cooking, we got people together and had pie, and everyone enjoyed that. I think we stayed up fairly late that night, but I don’t remember exactly what we did, really.

On Friday, we got up, and I spent some time playing a video game (a downloadable one called Realms of Ancient War, which he picked) with my nephew, since he doesn’t spend a lot of time with other guys. Megan got a bit upset that I wasn’t helping with other stuff. She made French toast for breakfast, which she wanted to do, and for which I am not much help. Anyhow, after a while, I dropped out of the game, and got started making soup, since it was almost lunch time, and I hadn’t even started. We switched the meals around, then, so we had leftovers for lunch. My nieces, my sister, and her boyfriend had spent the morning playing poker, since my one niece really wanted to learn, and wanted to try to win croutons (which are one of her favorite foods, apparently).  I think Megan’s dad was also playing. They stopped when we started eating, and we did some Mad Libs while we ate, and once we were done eating, kept playing, even though the kids were playing video games in the other room. I think I played Diablo 3 with my nephew then, for a while, and we got caught up in a really long quest, and I got kind of tired by his really selfish behavior while playing, and tried to explain to him why that was problematic, but it didn’t seem to do anything. Anyhow, at some point, I just stopped playing, and I think my niece took a turn playing. I finished up making the soup, while Megan helped Jim apply for a job. The soup turned out really well. There was some concern that we might not have enough soup for everyone, so we also had bread, butter, cheese, and crackers. That turned out not to be necessary, but people liked it, anyway, and there were leftovers of everything. I think we also had pie a bit later, and once we had cleaned up, Dan (my sister’s boyfriend) was playing Diablo 3 with my nephew, so I went and joined them. My one niece wanted to play, but I only had three controllers, so I gave her mine. Eventually, Dan got bored, and I took over his character, and after a while, I got sick of my nephew taking all of the loot, and I decided to drop out, as well, and went to talk to adults. We sat and talked for a long, long time, and that was nice. The kids came to join us after a while, as well, which was fine, and it was nice to just talk to people. We were up until about 3 in the morning, though, which kind of messed me up a bit. At some point in there, Megan’s parents said goodbye, as well, since they were leaving from their hotel on Saturday. They had brought their dog, which was the reason people weren’t going to come, and there was some drama at first, but by the end, the kids were kind of sad to see her go. That was good, since we were a bit worried about it. Anyhow, we went to bed late on Friday.

We tried to sleep in on Saturday, but I couldn’t, though I forget why… maybe people were too loud. Oh right, I think I woke up because I heard children awake and also the liquor cabinet opening. It turned out that it was my mom putting away wine glasses, but once I was up, I couldn’t sleep any more. I stayed up and had breakfast… and lots of coffee. I really don’t remember what else we did for most of the rest of the morning, though we had more leftovers for lunch, and eventually got people to help us set up our tree. I’m sure I probably played video games a bit, as well. At dinner time, we ordered pizza, since we were busy setting up the tree. I think we painted ornaments most of the day, before the tree set up. Everyone liked the pizza, though it went quickly. We had pie after that, and there was plenty of food. I think we played games some, as well. I know we played Taboo at some point, and after dinner, we played fishbowl, as well. I think we tried to get people not to play video games after lunch time, so we could spend more time together. My nephew didn’t like that decision much, but I think it was nice to spend time together. After the fishbowl game was over, we just kept playing charades for a while, and ended up going to bed at midnight, because my mom wanted to leave around 9. We were both glad to have gotten the tree set up, and done some crafts with people for a while, which left us with some new ornaments… though I had gotten rather irritated at certain points, which I suspect came from the fact that I was very tired.

I got up early on Sunday, because Megan thought we should get up early, to see if people wer

e up. I got up to find only my nephew awake, and playing Diablo 3 again. The cats were complaining because they wanted more food, so I fed them, and then made two trips to take them to the food, which was in an unfamiliar location. At that point, I once again could not fall asleep. I got up and had breakfast with people, and sought to spend more time with people before they left. My mom, sister, nieces, and nephew took a while getting ready, but left around 10 or so, and we got to give them the computer like we had planned, and they said they had a really great weekend, so we felt good about that. My other sister and her boyfriend stayed on a little while longer, and we took them to lunch at Carrabba’s before they left, which they thoroughly enjoyed. After lunch, we just chilled out and watched TV, mostly. We went to bed at a normal time, but were both still very tired when we got up this morning. Still, I got up and got ready. Megan took her time getting ready, and was ready at nearly 7. Rather than try to play Skyrim for 10 minutes, I just left early, and am earning some credit time today to make up for the stuff I used recently. I’ve been quite tired today, but have made it through. I ran at lunch time, and read some more… but have a ton of emails to get through, with more coming in as fast as I can read them. Perhaps I will take the time to read them this evening… before going to bed early. We were going to make tacos, but perhaps we should just finish off the leftovers instead, so we don’t spend time cooking, and instead just enjoy the evening a bit. We can have tacos tomorrow.

Overall, the visit went well, and I’m glad that we had everyone come, even if it was a bit stressful at times, and was a lot of work. It was nice to see everyone, and the whole affair was remarkably drama-free during the visit.