Holiday Hordes Heading Home 🏡

 Entry 1.  9:54 a.m.

And you get a cocktail, and you get a cocktail, and you get a cocktail. . . Today I am off to Total Wine to get alcohol for our Thanksgiving celebration. With more than 2 dozen people heading our way, and only one minor, I am glad that they can set aside their culinary differences and converge at the bar.

My Limoncello is still steeping, and I will find a cocktail of sorts to make with that. I tend to drink either scotch or Manhattans. If you know me, you know that I drink about as often as Trump admits he is wrong about anything. I will inventory the neglected liquor cabinet, and go from there.

Jenny is doing alright. Her pump comes off this afternoon. I don't know if she has seen her numbers, but she told me quietly this morning, just before Leiney came downstairs after waking, that she is scared. It sounded to me, having known her for years, the fear wasn't just general, "I have terminal cancer and am scared" fear. We will talk after Leiney is at work-Jenny is driving her--and Abby is away at acting.

We love hosting large Thanksgivings, and haven't done so in more than a decade. Jenny, like her mom, gets super stressed as the event is upon us, but I expect this year, that won't happen given she is more and more resigned to being limited in action--at least at the homestead. My favorite memory of Thanksgiving, back in 2008 or 9, we hosted friends and family at our big Renton Craftsman. So many people came, it was thrilling and fun. We were the Island of Misfit Toys. To have these friends, relatives, neighbors and colleagues come to our home to celebrate with us, well, we went to bed with full stomachs and settled hearts that night to be sure.

Tiger Mountain., Fall 2010.

This year, it will just be relatives, and the significant others of nieces and one nephew. Still, the number is huge, and I for one cannot wait.  As we were checking out at Haggen's last night and Leiney was telling me how worried and she was about Jenny, I told her, "We have to make this Thanksgiving the best ever, as if mom isn't going to live to see another year, hoping that she does. If she does live another year, we have to do the same thing next Thanksgiving." Leiney readily agreed, and I was pleasantly surprised I didn't get the "holiday celebrates genocide" lecture again.

Entry 2    4:49 

Well. I scrubbed the interior of the Civic today. That took all afternoon. I find jobs that you can see a sense of accomplishment when you are done are a reward in themselves.  But, it sucked the oxygen out of my morning. Abby and I went thrifting this afternoon. We live near a Goodwill, St. Vinnies and Value Village. We hit two of the three. We search out books, CDs and LPs. At St. Vinnies everything was 50% off. 

Abby and I had a hard conversation today which really reached her.  I suggested we go to Disneyland soon, and Abby suggested we wait until we visit Scripps College. I told her, I think we need to go sooner rather than later given her mom's health. The spring may be too late. She looked shocked, as if she finally is having some understanding.

Spending time with Abby is so pleasant. She is funny, smart, and 1:1 not too teenagery or teenagerish, your pick.  Why she keeps buying dvds, when she doesn't have a dvd player downstairs, well, who knows.