Thanksgiving with Family - From Both Sides!

Thanksgiving '24 Travelog #11
Outside Harrisburg, PA - Thu, 28 Nov 2024, 11pm

This evening we enjoyed a big, traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Hawk, her parents, and I went over to the house of family friends Dean and Lynne. That's been a tradition among my inlaws for probably 40 years. Lynne cooks Thanksgiving dinner at their house, and my mother-in-law cooks Second Thanksgiving dinner at her house. Yes, it's like living with Hobbits. 🤣 Though Second Thanksgiving is a day or two later, not later in the same day.

Joining my inlaws and their friends for Thanksgiving is a satisfying tradition but it hasn't always been our tradition. When Hawk and I started our new lives together in California years ago we were far away from almost all of our relatives. That was both a good thing and bad thing. Good, because we wanted to start fresh and didn't care to be beholden to other people and their expectations for us. But also bad, because the distance made it hard to see family.

Sure, flying cross country was always possible. Today we do it frequently. But back then it was expensive compared to our budget, Plus, time off from work was tight. With so many other places in the world we wanted to go with our limited time and money, so we did it only once every few years. Instead our Thanksgiving tradition was to use the four-day weekend to go hiking. As recently as 2018 we spent our Thanksgiving going hiking in California— or maybe planet Vulcan— at Vasquez Rocks and Devil's Punchbowl.

But this year we stuck to the traditional tradition of Thanksgiving with family and friends. We even had my oldest sister, her husband, and their daughter join us. They recently moved back to the east coast and— warning: long story short— didn't fit in with any other relatives' plans for the day. So Hawk checked with Lynne and Dean and her parents, and invitations were extended. There's always room at the table in these houses.

Black Friday at Home (Away From Home)

Thanksgiving '24 Travelog #12
Outside Harrisburg, PA - Fri, 29 Nov 2024, 11pm

Today is Black Friday and I've stayed home. I haven't gone shopping— either in brick-and-mortar stores or online from home. Though technically I'm not home. I'm 2,400 miles away at my inlaws'. But Hawk and I are here for 4 night, as we often do around Thanksgiving nowadays. Let's call it our home away from home.

I got up at a leisurely hour of 8 or 8:30 this morning, went downstairs for some breakfast, and chatted with MIL a bit as she was the only one up and about. She was busy in the kitchen, as usual. We keep offering to do things for her so she can take a break from doing all the food-related work, but she's happiest doing it herself. The kitchen is her happy place.

The plan had been for my sister and her family to come over from their hotel nearby to say goodbye— and have a rich, freshly cooked brunch— before starting their drive home to Savannah, Georgia. My sister was feeling ill, though, and didn't want a big meal or the pressures of long family goodbyes before hitting the road. Instead I drove over to their hotel and chatted with them in the lobby after they'd loaded their bags in the car.

After seeing them off I returned to the house and socialized with my inlaws, who were now all up. After a bit I went back up to my room to hibernate and do not-job work on my computer. Family is relaxing but also frustrating because it's the same three conversations over and over.

By midafternoon I felt tired from even hiding in our room so I took a nap. Hawk woke me in time for dinner. It was... kind of leftovers from the 60th anniversary dinner when we visited here three weeks ago! "Kind of" meaning it was chili made from the short ribs we ate back then. I understand there are even more short ribs awaiting Second Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night. 😟 Two things about my MIL are: 1) she cooks for no fewer than 40 so there are always lots of leftovers, and 2) leftovers are never thrown out; you will eat them until they're gone.

After dinner was more conversation with my inlaws, but again, the same three topics. There's definitely more we could talk about, things I know are pertinent to everyone present and not at all landmines like trying to talk politics with a MAGA person in the room, but no  matter how many times I try to change the subject to one of these it gets changed back within 2 minutes.