Oh Thanksgiving, How Entertaining You Can Be!

Highlights of our Thanksgiving holiday…

We go to my grandparents’ house every year on Thanksgiving and this year was no different…for the most part. One thing that WAS different was the new addition of my cousin Casey’s adorable dog (Chadwick). The dog is A-dorable, but the fact it peed on my leg as soon as I arrived was not. Maybe it was claiming me as its own? (giggle)The dog did make it up 100% to me as he entertained the boys FOR HOURS. So, I think we'll call it even.

It was great to see my parents, grandparents, my Auntie and cousins, but the shining moment of the day had to be watching my grandmother accidentally dump an entire plate of food on my grandfather’s head. (Maybe she was claiming him as her own, much like Chadwick tried with me?)

Bless her heart! She was just trying to shimmy between the back of his chair and the china cabinet to get to the other side of the table…and "oops". The bad part was Bug saw it all and started cackling really loud as my grandma tried to wipe mashed potatoes off my grandfather’s bald head.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry but what I do know is...

1) We missed out on a $10,000 Funniest Home Videos moment, for sure.
2) Pa did not find it entertaining OR funny…at all.

Only three hours after stuffing their faces at my grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving Linner (after lunch, before dinner), the boys wanted their “house” Thanksgiving I had not at all prepared for. So, Bug and I made our way into the kitchen to quickly throw together a meal using whatever we had in the pantry. It actually turned out pretty nice, even though it was extremely unplanned.

As we went around the table during our On-The-Fly Thanksgiving dinner at home, to say what we’re thankful for, Bug quickly said his hamster (Helen, who is a Chinese hamster and was named after the only Chinese person Bug knows...his classmate Helen. I honestly think he feels Helen is a traditional Chinese name. Sigh.)

Flea said he just didn’t know what he was thankful for (in a very annoyed tone I’m certain the Cleaver boys would have been backhanded for off-camera if they’d tried to pull with June).

Nice.

Side note: In Flea’s defense, it was pretty corny to go around saying what we were thankful for. But, I kind of felt like we needed to at least ACT like it was an official Thanksgiving dinner, even though everyone knew it clearly was not. (MY BAD for trying to start a “normal family” tradition with kids who think ordering Sir Pizza on Christmas Eve and eating at the Golden Wok on Christmas night are the most precious family traditions known to man.)

While I was cleaning up the mess, I decided our dogs should be able to celebrate as well. So, I fed them the leftover mashed potatoes and ham the boys hadn’t devoured. They enjoyed it greatly and I was pleased with myself…UNTIL a few moments later when one of the dogs barfed all over the kitchen rug.

Lovely.

Happy Thanksgiving…again.

Whitney

“Some family trees bear an enormous crop of nuts.” (Unknown Author)