Mmm, Cranberry Sauce

I love cranberry sauce. Especially the kind straight out of the can. It kind of goes against the high maintanance food persona that I try to exhibit, but I don't care. When around family you should always be yourself.

My Thanksgiving was quite wonderful this year. It was very girly. That's not a slam on being around men, per se, but rather than sitting around watching t.v. or rolling around on the floor punch drunk from too much turkey (this never happens to me as I usually don't even eat the turkey--it's all the sides that I love--but I've seen this behavior from people that I really respect and it kind of worries me...who would even want to fill up on white meat when there are dinner rolls and mashed potatoes?).

Anyway, Chris suggested that I ride with my parents to Amarillo instead of waiting until Wednesday night to go with him that way I could spend some time with my grandma since we weren't staying with her for the holiday. It sounds very sacrificial of him, but I assure you, his motives were impure. At the best of times I am not a good car rider. I HATE sitting still for very long. And now I have back pain and an ungodly urge to use the lady's room frequently, which, incidentally, can never compete with my dear mother's pressing desire to check out every rest stop from here til we reach our destination. So, my dear, sweet husband unloaded his wife and two dogs onto her doting parents who were already traveling with their cat who likes to puke if he's unwrapped from his traveling towel. No one ever accused Chris of being a dummy. We were all well-behaved, however, even Sydney the puking cat. At least he has the decency to make this weird, gurgling noise before he's going to actually unload. I think it's considerate of him. My dogs were angels, I was an angel, we were all undervalued and under appreciated, but I think we made a good impression in the end.



One of the reasons that I decided to take Chris up on his offer to leave before him was because my great aunt's son's wife (ha!) offered to give us all pedicures. What woman would turn down a free pedi? What sane woman that is? My unattended toes became cute little Christmas stockings in a mere 5 hours. Yep, you read that right. Dear Lou, the great aunt son's wife, tended to five of us by herself. You know how I mentioned that I have a problem sitting still for that long? It doesn't change in or out of the car.

Thanksgiving day was slightly busy decorating deviled eggs with my father-in-law, Allen, kicking Sophie out of the kitchen ten times, and waiting impatiently to eat. It seems like I'm perpetually waiting impatiently to eat. We had a wonderful, small Thanksgiving that I thoroughly enjoyed with just Chris's brothers, his parents, and their respective spouse/girlfriend. I like small groups much more than big ones.

On Friday I decided to leave Pampa town and head back to Amarillo where there was more girl time to be had. Chris was nicely settled in a book, and since I'd offered to take the dogs with me, he was once again fine to let me be. That night my aunt, who had worked a full day at her job, got suckered in to doing everyone's hair. Including mine. Apparently my hair was sub-par since my mom told me to let Brenda cut it. So, I did. I wasn't ready to chop it off, but I told Brenda if she would wait 5 minutes and let me come to terms with it, I'd be OK. And I was. So she did.

And so, in the spirit of the holiday, I would just like to say how thankful I am for the women of my family. For my grandma who presented me with a bag of vintage baby clothes and blankets because she knows how much I love vintage, for my great aunt who gave up her bed so that I wouldn't have to sleep on the couch, for my mom who encouraged me to chop my hair off and is always fun to have around, for my aunt who was up til midnight doing all our hair, my cousins who are giggly and fun, and my mother-in-law, who made me green-bean casserole and bought me canned cranberry sauce because those are two of my favorites. I think they are all pretty special.