Post Thanksgiving wrap up

Well, I survived. I was thinking this year would be zero fun because I have never attended a Thanksgiving with only 4 people, let alone hosted such a small party. But the lack of people turned out to be deceiving - my mom and sister stayed over the night before, Ann came for dinner, Jack dropped by with chocolates and just when I was ready for bed (around 7) Rach and Bob came back and we all watched movies until late. Fun!!

Dinner was awful, but that's what happens when you only cook once a year. At least the turkey was perfect. We looked at it as practice for Christmas when we're going all out - ham, turkey, the works - everything I can think of.

This is the first year I have been really sad not to go home to Pennsylvania. I hate the drive, but there's something so nice about Christmas there. It's different. It's neighborly - people bring Christmas cookies to each other. So many plates of cookies show up, no one family could possibly eat them all. Churches ring their bells and play carols on loudspeakers; there are always carolers. We are invited to lots of gatherings, there's lots of family to try and get around to and sometimes we even have time to see our high school friends.

We just don't have that up here. We have lived in this house for 9 years and most of our neighbors have never introduced themselves, let alone bring us cookies. There's an older lady that walks by every morning that I wave to and she never waves back. I was brought up to wave to everybody, wasn't everyone??

Yes, I know, I could start something, send a couple of plates around and see how it goes but it just doesn't seem like it's something normal up here. Or am I wrong - do your neighbors have you in? Bring you cookies? Carol at your house? Do tell.

We are pretty anti-social in general, so perhaps that's it. And it's something else too - we don't have kids and our neighborhood is filled with them. Parallel to that thought, Mark doesn't hang with his extended family much and that always makes the holidays odder. I find them to be very nice people and very artsy crafty - the men are into all kinds of sports and the women are knitters, quilters, cross stitchers, etc. however, Mark is different and it isn't that he has his own personal library of car books in order by marque. Of all the cousins, Mark is pretty much the only one without at least one little kid. Mark's mom keeps inviting us to do things, most recently a trip to Arizona in May for a big extended family vacation but she keeps forgetting we don't have little kids. People who don't have little kids are not positioned well to be able to add to a discussion about hand-me-downs, toilet training, school photos and Storyland expansion. I'm not pooping on school pictures or Storyland but right now, I feel very out of place around his cousins with all their little people and diaper bags and it's another reason why I wish I was heading home to my old 'hood for a big box of holiday nostalgia.

Hopefully, in another year my Dad will still be there and we can head back and breathe in deeply of everything that lets you know you're back where you came from and life is all special and Christmasy.