An Excuse to Eat Turkey. And Pie.

First major holiday of the holiday season is today. I am sure you must know, unless you live in a cave, today is Thanksgiving. A day where we feel we have an excuse to eat a lot of rich food, drink alcohol, have double dessert and sit around watching football. As I said, today we think we have a valid excuse. What about every other day of the year? I note most people consume like this with no valid excuse the rest of the year. But today is the special day for excused gluttony. I don’t understand. I do participate, though. I eat like a little piggie today. Especially the desserts. I guess I stand alone. The way it should be.

Last night we had the worlds scariest thunder and torrential rains. Lost power. The thunder exploded, not an overstatement, exploded. The windows were shaking to the point of breaking. The cataclysmic portion of the storm lasted no more than 30 minutes but as is true with many disasters, it felt longer.

At about 2 am Emily woke up, and realized Marika was not home yet. And Emily, became Mom quickly, hunted her down and made me go pick her up and bring her home. I say, she is 23, and an adult. Let her figure it out. I also say, this is what she does when she is not at home so let it go. Not happening. I got dressed and drove the 50 min round trip to get her. Home by 3 am. Marikas evening had consisted of hanging in a local bar in Dixon with 30 or so friends. Big party. Then off to Denny’s for late night food. Which is where I got her at 230. And, shockingly, she was drunk. Same sort of thing I used to do at 23.

Back home at 3am. Straight to bed. I am tired. Well, it is 3am. Marika passed out. The power of alcohol. Emily did not wake up when we got home.

Emily had wanted to get on the road early on Thursday. I woke up at 630 and went to the bathroom. Back to bed, and I told her not to wake me. I will get up on my own. So no early start, thank you.

Out of bed at 8am ish. It took a good two hours to eat, clean up, pack us and pack the car. Very tiring. Marika is moving slow. Not some incredible surprise. We managed to get this all packed and moving. Marika is driving her car since she is going back hone tomorrow night. We are taking the MBZ with both dogs. And the crap. We have a guaranteed fun trip with our stressed out pups. Jax has become completely stressed in his old (15) age and stands in back panting for the two hour trip. The poodle, Latte, was doing the same thing. A version of dueling tongues. Latte lays down and pants. Windows open make no difference. Or water. They are just stressed for no reason. The cat, in Marikas car, is screaming the whole way. She called from her car to share. Not sure which I prefer.

We got to the family house in Bodega Bay by 1pm. Which is very early for a Thanksgiving Day trip. But, today, there was no traffic. By that I mean no traffic. Not slow. Not some. I mean none. It was stress free driving with very few cars on the road with us. We must live right.

We had quite a bit more to unpack than I thought. A lot more. Not sure why. Plenty of food for sure, two suitcases, two dogs, I don’t know. Just took some time.

This is a really quiet day. There is only the six of us. So we sat and ate some cheese, meat and crackers. Some wine was consumed. We watched a little football. The usual holiday deal. I had brought a couple bottles of champagne. Opened the first of those at about 4. The best bottle first. That way the next couple taste better even though they are not so good. The bubbly took us all the way to dinner when we switched guns to Pinot noir.

The turkey dinner was great. Except, for me, I needed salad. And I hate Brussels sprouts and beets which was the only veg choice. I need green beans. And my mother in laws stuffing is nowhere near as good as Emily’s. Just saying. We need our own kitchen so we can make what we like for turkey day.

Since there were only six of us we were able to actually have a conversation that included all of us. Usually large groups cause loss of some to the conversation. My father in law does not join in anymore because he is unable to keep up with what’s going on. But, it was a spirited conversation over a good meal.

Clean up was a breeze. Mary led the way and I just supplied her with scraped dishes to deal with. Again, with only the six of us, the dishwasher was not even full. That kind of night. We are sitting around now, solving the family’s problems, and discussing “things”. Always funny. I am just listening to the talk. And really enjoying it. They are going on and on. Some of this talking is really strange. Could just be the blood alcohol level in these folks.

My favorite part of today is upon us. It’s pie time. This year we have three different types of pie, pumpkin, pecan and lemon meringue. I made the lemon. So it’s fabulous. I also whipped cream for those so inclined. I’m not. But it is always a firm rule with me to have a slice of each. Sometimes a second slice. But each type is given its due on my plate. I don’t play favorites. Funny thing, I was the only person who had any of the pumpkin. I think pumpkin is of primary importance mostly because of the holiday. I would never pass it up. I was thinking of making a pumpkin pie, pie shake. That would be awesome.

So everyone but me had two pieces of pie, pecan and lemon. And I had three, adding in pumpkin. We are now all full to the point of exploding. And laying around. Top button undone, again, so we don’t explode. And just chatting and drinking coffee. So it’s just a regular holiday.

The house here in Bodega has only enough room to sleep two adults and two kids. Since we got here second, we lose. We are going to sleep next door at Mary’s house. She has room for us in the converted garage.

So bedtime. We went next door and there was a plague of flies in the garage room. Gross. We had to leave a light on far away from the bed to try and draw the little buggers away from us. Not sure how that’s going to play out. But. Am too tired to care.