I'm Full

Another Thanksgiving come and gone. Another Thanksgiving of overeating. And over drinking.

Yesterday was really fun. Matt and Anne's house was crowded with people, about 20 in all. The nieces and nephews ran up and down the stairs, happy to be with their cousins, happy to be with kids other than their siblings. The adults nibbled on appetizers and drank cocktails while the turkey baked to perfection. Anne pulled the turkey out of the oven and my mother-n-law said, "Oh, it looks exactly like it should look." My other sister-n-law Nancy and I joked by saying, "Thank God, I really thought it was going to look like a goat."

We all sat at one big table. Matt and Anne cleared the couch out of the living room and set up their dining room table plus 2 other folding tables there. It was pretty cool once everyone sat down. Although talking to everyone at the table was impossible.

Stein and I fretted over how many batches of green bean casserole to make. We decided on 2 big batches, and quickly realized as we sat down to dinner that it was too much. In addition to the Brussels sprouts that we also brought, there was 2 kinds of rolls, mashed potatoes, 2 kinds of stuffing, salad, sweet potatoes, and of course turkey. I had a little of everything on my plate, and my plate was covered. Delicious. For dessert, we had a choice of pumpkin, apple, or sour-cream apple pies, and vanilla or pumpkin creme brulee (made by our niece Claire). I crave anything pumpkin in the fall, so I had a nice slice of pumpkin pie with a big dollop of whipped cream, and then had the pumpkin creme brulee. Yum, yum, and yum.

Stein and I waddled to the car, our stomachs protruding from our coats. We got home, jumped immediately into pajamas and onto the couch, and were sleeping by 10:00. Thank you, gluttony.

Today, Stein and I went to the gym to attempt to work off a bit of the food we ate last night. I think maybe a spoonful of gravy was worked off in my 40-minute ride on the elliptical machine. I even ventured out to a store today, on "Black Friday" (by the way, since when is the Friday after Thanksgiving called Black Friday by retailers?). I'm not one of those shoppers who was out at the stores at midnight, or 4am (yes, there were stores around here open at those times). In fact, I really don't enjoy shopping. Unless it's grocery shopping. I can do that anytime. Shopping for me is like this: if I need something, I'll go to the store and buy it, but I really don't enjoy meandering in and out of stores just looking.

Anyway, I returned the camera that Stein bought me for my birthday because I wanted a smaller version. So today, what started out as an innocent search online for a new camera, ended up in a trip to Best Buy. On the busiest shopping day of the year. I set my expectations low when I was driving over there. I thought that I would have to weasel my way into the camera area and wait for at least a half hour for a salesperson to help me. I was pleasantly surprised when walked right up to the camera counter and then within 5 minutes had a salesperson helping me get what I needed. I did have to wait in line about 10 minutes to pay, but that wasn't bad at all, considering my prediction. As the cashier rang up my items, she took off the discount for the competitor's price (I luckily spotted the camera at a competitor for $20 cheaper), but didn't give me the sales price for the additional memory card I bought. "It must have been the pre-noon sale," she said. I nodded like I knew what she was talking about. As I gathered my bag and started walking out of the store, I stopped at the display with the sale flayers. I wanted to double check that the memory card was part of the pre-noon sale. That was the case, but then I saw a memory card with double the memory on sale for less than the regular price of the other one! Cha-ching! I headed over to the exchange desk and completed my transaction. I am now a proud owner of a digital camera (pictures to be posted soon) with enough memory to store about 1200 pictures! Thank you, Stein.

I got home, and made a turkey sandwich. As a rule, the day after Thanksgiving, my lunch consists of turkey and mayonnaise on toast, with chips and a coke. Yum.

I also read some magazines. Christmas magazines. As a tradition, my mom, aunt, sisters and I read Christmas magazines the day after Thanksgiving. It kind of kicks off the start of the Christmas season for me (never before today, as you already know). We buy Ladies Home Journal, Woman's Day, and the like. We read them for the heart-warming Christmas stories of tragedies saved by "angels" and families drawn closer together by the magic of Christmas. It's sappy, but I love it. And it's a tradition. This year, I'm a little disappointed by the magazines. Not one of them had a story (fiction or non) that made me cry. Not one of them had even a story that warmed my heart. I feel gypped. Oh well, maybe loading up the stereo with Christmas Cd's will help...