Thanks Again

SUMMARY: Feast, Family, Friends, and finally--Friday.

Thursday afternoon we had the traditional gathering of family and random friends for the purposes of consuming mass quantities and being thankful.

 Not everyone in the family could make it this year; my next-to-youngest sister and her family went to her in-laws for the weekend; my youngest sister and her kids were in Nevada and Louisiana, respectively. But with my parents, three of us sisters and a cousin, three spouses, two offspring, and three friends of the family, we were plenty. I'm thankful that I have so much family so close by.

I ate rationally: Small portions of everything, never enough to feel stuffed, just satisfied. I'm thankful for all the excellent food--and for Weight Watchers, who has taught me so much about ways to eat healthfully.

My sister and her husby hosted. I'm thankful that they were willing to do all the set-up and organization and the biggest part of the cooking and prep.


I'm thankful for the mahhhvelous array of desserts--and for Weight Watchers, who taught me how to plan for extenuating circumstances such as this.

Afterwards, some of us washed and dried those huge piles of dirty dishes (broken dishwasher). I'm thankful for the cousin and her friend who took over the washing after I discovered that I had a sore finger, and very thankful that my own dishwasher works fine.  I dried all the silverware, and then when I went to the plates, the first one I dried I somehow fumble-fingered it and shattered it. I'm thankful for my sister saying calmly that it was no big deal as they had lots and made me feel a smidgen less guilty. I left the rest of the dishes for others to dry.

The following morning--Black Friday (not in mourning, but in black numbers indicating profits galore)--I avoided stores completely. Except that I had to walk past here:

and admire the mall Christmas decorations in front of the abandoned storefront:

to get here for my weekly motivation session:

There weren't many of us there on the morning after Thanksgiving. We got kudos for showing up. I'm always thankful for kudos!

(If you want to browse the remaining couple dozen Thanksgiving photos, I posted them here with brief commentary. I particularly like the cranberry sauce and ice cream photos!)