A Pretty Good Day

Thanksgiving was a pretty good day.

We woke up in the Fortress of Ineptitude to enjoy some chocolate chip waffles and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. A lot of the celebrities in the parade were frequently acknowledged by me with “Who’s that?” I mean, seriously, who are most of these people? Ah who cares? I’m just waiting for the Rockettes to show up. I get a real (wait for it!) KICK out of them. (Ha. Ha. Ha.) 

This Thanksgiving, we were to dine at my brother in law’s house. This is not always an easy experience. My wife’s brother has a very (to put this politely) powerful personality with strong views on living, working, health, child raising and so on. He and his wife are doing very well for themselves which I honestly do not begrudge them one bit but sometimes I wish they could be a bit cooler about it. Still, they are very nice to serve dinner and welcome the family into their home at the holidays and they serve me booze which helps me go with the flow. 

On our way there, we ventured forth to pick up my wife’s great aunt Emily as we often do for such get togethers. Emily is a dear, sweet woman and she has a ball riding in the back of the car with my daughter. And Randie enjoys having Emily along for the ride, whether she was six years old and showing off her latest toy or nearing 16 and showing off a cool video she found on the internet.

I got to play pool with Charlie, my brother in law’s wife’s father. I like playing pool with Charlie because he’s not that good at it which is great because neither am I. This time, our equal lack of skill actually had us clear the table with just the 8 ball waiting to determine the winner. I had a great shot where I just tapped the cue ball which just tapped the 8 ball which rolled gently towards the corner pocket I had called and stopped right on the very lip of the hole. Charlie taps it in and wins the game. Early Merry Christmas, Charlie.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. I noted here before that my brother in law tends to eschew traditional turkey for other meats. This year was roasted chicken and ham and quite frankly, I didn’t miss the turkey. In addition we had a squash casserole, a sweet potato dish that was so good it should be illegal and starring as always, fried dressing, a longtime tradition of my wife’s family.

I got to catch a lot of the Detroit Lions – Minnesota Vikings game. Me, what I know about football could go into a thimble and still have room for your thumb. But hey, I’m an American man on Thanksgiving and by God, I’m watching football! I was a little confused when the sports guys put up a graphic on possession times.

Apparently, I missed Aretha Franklin’s rendition of the National Anthem which lasted over 4 and half minutes.

It is kind of funny but weird listening to the older people in attendance with their very cavalier attitudes towards death. I guess when you get to a certain age, you make peace with it but do we really have to bring up the time Emily’s husband was crushed by a car while we’re enjoying fried dressing? Well, apparently once you're past 70, you're OK with it.  

We said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts and I’m not saying that ironically. I had a really good time in their company and in their home. My wife, daughter and I took Emily back to her home. Emily is a friendly, gregarious person full of love and kindness but the years are taking their toll on her physically. Both Randi and I had to guide her halting footsteps into her house.

After we made sure Emily was safely ensconced in her home, the three of us made our way not to our own home but to one of our favorite movie theaters where we saw Moana. I don’t think I’ve ever gone out to a movie on Thanksgiving day but Randie was really, really anxious to see this movie and I wasn’t about to make her wait another day. I will have more of a write up on the movie itself in Monday’s post. Suffice to say, Moana was awesome and was a perfect way to cap what turned out to be… a pretty good day.

That’s all the news for this blog post. I’ll be back with another one for Sunday which, of course, means Doctor Who stuff.

And Monday’s post will provide a full write up on Moana.

Until next time, I hope you have plenty more pretty good days to come and remember to be good to one another.