Thankful

Any family members who live in town usually gather at my mother's house for Thanksgiving. This year the crowd was smaller than usual. Blonde Sister and her family decided to go to Big City Like No Other to have dinner with Red-haired Niece and Urban Sophisticate Sister. They were watching the parade from the place where Urban Sophisticate works and, judging from their text messages and cell phone pictures, had quite the view. When I talked to Urban Sophisticate on the phone later in the day, they had just eaten a big meal and were ready for naps. Red-haired Sister and her family, who usually don't come for Thanksgiving because they come for Christmas, were vacationing in a Warm Country Where Thanksgiving is not Even a Holiday. My brother and his new wife stayed in Camera City to spend the day with assorted family and friends there.

So only nine of us gathered at my mother's house, a group small enough to fit around one table. My mother cooked the traditional turkey dinner, and several apple pies, and the house smelled like good food as we came in from the cold. Boy in Black and Shaggy Hair Boy brought their guitars, so we had music while we talked. We called Urban Sophisticate on a cell phone to sing happy birthday to her, and that somehow led to a long phone conversation between With-a-Why and Blonde Sister about the orange tree in our living room. Boy in Black got out his laptop out to set up my parents' new wireless router. (Yes, they've gone wireless! I can blog from their house now, although since they only live five miles away, I'm not sure why I ever would.) At one point, I walked into the living room to see all four of my kids and my father crowded onto the couch to watch clips of Laurel and Hardy on Boy in Black's laptop. I'm not sure, but I think he was teaching his grandfather how to download stuff illegally.

Snow was falling as we drove home, and Christmas music was playing on the radio. It feels like the holiday season has begun.

The photo shows Boy in Black in my parents' kitchen.