It's Not Thanksgiving Anymore...

"Mommy, it's not Thanksgiving anymore because they started Christmas!"
- Eva

It sounded much sweeter when she said it the day after Thanksgiving! Actually, I believe "they" started Christmas the day after Halloween but I have not paid them much attention. Until now.

[Bear with me, I promise my next post will put me into the current month!]

Thanksgiving was really good. We had it at my house this year, a first. Our thinking was that if we had it at my house, my sister Alicia, who has not been coming for the holidays would be able to come with her family and we could all be together for the first time in many years. My nephew Jake has some serious allergies to animal hair and they can't risk spending time in homes that have pets. I am pet free, so it was the perfect solution!

So the plan was set into motion, but then it fizzled out just a tad when Renee told us that her in-laws were in town staying with her for the week and although Renee invited the two of them as well, they turned us down flat. So we had a great Thanksgiving even though Renee and her clan [and brother Brad too] were very much missed from our day.

Alicia and her husband Brad along with my nephew Jake [he's 13] and niece Hannah [she's 9] drove the long way up to spend the holiday with us. They live about 3-4 hours south of us in Paso Robles [if you don't know California think Cal Poly or a bit further south the Santa Barbara area]. Mom and Jim and Jimmy and Chase came from [north of] Sacramento and we just soaked up the sun and had ourselves a beautiful Thanksgiving day. We even fought off the onset of turkey induced comas and opted for a walk to the park, which was brilliant. And pretty. And fun.

Between Alicia and my mom, I hardly had to work! They did everything! Alicia even added her Greek spaghetti to our menu and it was super yummy. Thanks Alicia for coming so far and spending so much time with us, you always make everything fun! And thanks mom, you always make everything memorable, and delicious!


Just one more November quote from Eva:

"you like me because I play with you and I help you cook the cookies and I help you cook the cake and you love me."