Thanksgiving #1

My wife and I are blessed with a large extended family. Sunday night we had Thanksgiving #1 (of 3!!!) at my Aunt's house.

My Uncle has had pneumonia - loads of fun. We saw him and asked how he was feeling. My Uncle's dad popped out of the woodwork at that point, so he got the same question. "Oh, bad!", he said in that blunt why-sugar-coat-it way that some older folks have. "I've been feeling horrible, same sort of stuff he's got... I think we poisoned each other."

My wife and I exchanged glances, both thinking the same thing. "Contagions! Yay!"

With goal #1 firmly established (Don't get sick), we settled in to wait for the rest of the guests to arrive.

One of the guests was a non-blood-relative cousin of mine with extremely simple culinary notions. I overheard her during dinner saying, "If you put enough butter on it, anything tastes good."

Later, I discretely field-tested her theory on a small chunk of concrete. I learned that there are no culinary absolutes (thank goodness she wasn't the one cooking!). I also learned that chipping up bits of your hosts' driveway is a social faux pas.

My niece and nephews were there, too. Littlest Nephew (2 years old) was poking around my uncle's game room. There was a pool table, bowling balls, all kinds of stuff on the walls, but my burrowing nephew zero'd in on a small plastic rod behind a chair. "I find stick!" he gleefully exclaimed. He must have known it was a hall of fame toy (no, really).

There's more to that story, and if you know me personally, I'll be glad to tell you. Let's just say he was unintentionally hilarious with that "stick". Too cute for words. :)

I wanna thank my Aunt for the early T-Day, the good food, and the fun time. We love you! Happy early Thanksgiving, all!