More Thanksgiving

Saturday:11/26/2005
I roll out of bed at 8:30am because Mom, Aunt Beth, Aunt Brenda and I are going to a Kiln opening and it starts at 9am.
No one else is awake (except Mom) and Aunt Beth and Aunt Brenda haven’t arrived from Nana Kelley’s yet (I think some of you are already guess how that plot point will end) They are at Nana’s because they plan on abandoning their husbands there for a day of labor redoing her kitchen cabinets.
My cousins Austin and Mariah wander down stairs and Mom offers them breakfast, they ask what it is and then give her the “crazy lady” look that she got from them a lot that weekend. I offer to make them eggs and while they are still wary that this might be a trap to make them eat something new, they take me up on it.
9:30am Mom calls Nana and finds out that Beth and Brenda are still in Weaverville getting breakfast – it’s a two and half hour drive.
My cousin Paige wanders down the stairs and asks if she can come with Mom and I- sure!
Off we head to the kiln…
Paige is fun to hang out with, and is in fact so fun that an old man corners her on the porch of the kiln and starts talking to her. Actually what happened was that she was carrying her coat and he told her it was too cold and she needed to put it on- and then took it from her and put it around her shoulders and THEN started talking to her about?
Mom rescued her a few minutes later.
I bought homemade Jam at the shop and Mom bought little tiny clay jars for her sisters.
Then we headed home (showing Paige the view on the way. Mom’s sisters arrive at about 12:30- hugs all around during which I get a really intense look from mom (you know when she stands really close to you face and looks you right in the eyes and puts a little more force behind the words she wants you to pay attention too) telling me that she has a blow dryer I can use upstairs in her bathroom.
Halfway through blow drying my hair I realize that I didn’t hug Aunt Brenda and that fact has no been entered into the Book of Life- so the first thing to do after I’m finished is to remember to hug Aunt Brenda (I’m easily distracted).
We make MORE food for Thanksgiving as well as try out Moms new nifty-difty Turkey roaster that made that horrendous experience at Wal-Mart all worth it (right?) about an hour later Mom realizes that the roaster isn’t hot and starts poking around only to discover that she never plugged it in! Easily fixed but slightly annoying because we are on a schedule! We decide that I will take the cousins ice skating later that night after dinner because since we stopped the tradition of getting together every other year for Christmas with Mom’s family (scheduling conflicts) our Florida cousins haven’t been able to get their allotment of “snow time”.
About this time Megan shows up with darling Isabella who begins her stalking campaign of Sophie (Moms’ dog).
We also receive a phone call from Uncle John who is realizing he has been caught in the Black Hole named “Nana Kelley’s house” and will be missing Thanksgiving dinner- his all time favorite meal of the year. Aunt Beth consoled him by promising him a plate of food brought down the next day.
At that point something happens with Mariah- I thought it was that she felt bad for getting stuck at a table with only Austin and all the older cousins were at their own table but my gesture of sitting with her didn’t really improve anything so maybe it was the fact that she realized that her Dad wasn’t going to make it in time?
Anyway the turkey wasn’t finished so we started dinner anyway and served the honeyed ham (which I like better anyway). Isabella proceeded to play her game where she wants to get down only to be hungry again, unfortunately she has played this game with Megan one too many times and she was having none of it.
Regardless, a bit later found Dad, Katie and I all clustered around her high chair offering her desserts and new, clean spoons. (She has the most pitiful cry you’ve ever heard.)