Thanksgiving, already?
No sooner does Halloween end than preparations for Thanksgiving begin. Being a big food holiday but not a big decorating holiday, department stores have already put out their Christmas goods, and I don't mind telling you I find the whole prospect rather depressing. I'm not a Christmas person. Not an Ebenezer Scrooge, quite, but I really don't like having Christmas carols and pine-scented candles shoved down my throat this soon after October. Not to mention the inevitable parade of conspicuous consumerism that marks this time of year -- the endless ads for expensive toys and gadgetry that manufacturers try to make us feel like we have to buy to fulfill our obligations to family.
It looks like this year, we'll be doing Thanksgiving at my parents-in-law's house. I just spoke to my own grandmother yesterday and she said that she's doing a small thing in New York because my cousin Michael has promised himself to his girlfriend's family this holiday and my cousin Richard has other obligations -- that's officially one half of the cousin contingent right there. So she's visiting my cousin Jennifer and her husband, who will have a small holiday feast with Jen's parents, my uncle Steve and aunt Sandy. Next year, Grandma says, Sandy and Steve will have Thanksgiving at their house, and we'll be on the hook.
My in-laws are on vacation in Florida right now, enjoying their condo in Bonita Springs, but they'll be back in time to prepare to have the whole family over for a feast. And the Nowiks know how to do it right -- in the thirteen years I've regularly been going to Nowik family events, I've never once walked away hungry. This also means a short holiday commute -- they live just Off-Cape, which means a half-hour drive instead of an hour-and-a-half trek up to the western suburbs of Boston. This delights me, because driving back in the dark while fighting off a tryptophan-induced coma is a dangerous proposition.
For me, it'll be a makeup for last year, because I was stuck at home with Emmeline, who'd fallen ill with the flu. Hopefully none of the kids will get sick this time around. But if they do, Bonnie will have to stay home this time. It's only fair!