For many years now, Thanksgiving has been a small affair. Until 2009, usually just my ex and I and our kids. Occasionally my brother.
Such a marked difference to enjoy a huge repast with a house full of sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces and a nephew, grandparents. Well, grandparent, as SG's mom spent the holiday in the hospital. She's all recovered now and we are so grateful for her return to health.
The food was amazing, the company warm and spontaneous. I missed him, though, so much. Being this far apart is really, really hard. I spend a lot of time performing the smackdown on small feelings and on struggling with the ghosts of relationships past. There are so many things that are hard to express fully over wireless channels.
The day after Thanksgiving is always the day I put up Christmas, and so it was again this year. There was also a lot of house cleaning and some yard work, and some horseback riding with my daughter, and now the kids have gone to their dad's, the house is quiet, and I am downloading the camera and smiling at each still snapshot of our life.
Thanksgiving day wouldn't be complete without some time spend laying on the floor in front of the television while the food digests:
But for the C-man, the best part of the day was spending time in Grandpa's shop and getting to wear his magnifying eye goggles!
BIG EYES!
Friday morning the boxes came out of the garage, and up went The Tree:
I bought some new colored lights this year and put some up around the slider in the dining room. I think they complement the new paint.
Yesterday we got one of the biggest eggs I'd ever seen! Look at it, you can just tell it must have hurt like hell. Poor chicken:
You're probably not surprised to hear it was a double-yolker.
Today I raked and bagged 30 yard-bags full of leaves and I still have four piles to do! My little guy was a terrific helper, stuffing leaves and carrying the bags to the pile for me. He LOVES to help, and we had such a good time:
The chickens came around the front yard to scratch around in the newly-uncovered grass. C-Man loves the chickens, I frequently find him carrying them around. They seem to really like him -- they don't flap their wings or squawk. They just kind of sit there patiently and let him tote them all over the place. He carried one around on Saturday for about an hour, and she honestly seemed happy about it. The Chicken Whisperer, I call him:
So that was our four-day weekend.
How was yours?
