I am exceedingly grateful that Allan's family is very small, and that my family doesn't care about celebrating the holidays. Christmas and Thanksgiving are always very low-key: we meet up with Allan's family, which consists of his sister and her husband (and their dog), his dad, and his mom and stepdad. No myriad of people to keep track of and mingle with. No maniacal kids running around wreaking havoc (one little man can cause enough, thank you!) I remember when I was single, watching movies with such scenes and feeling a twinge of envy that I didn't have a large family like that to gather with. But then I got married and joined in on the Knight family traditions and discovered that I was *really* glad that I would never have to deal with gatherings of that magnitude-- small wonder the holidays are so exhausting for so many.
Then this year, we shrank it even further. As I mentioned in my previous post, we spent this year's Thanksgiving in Santa Barbara-- just the three of us. My boys and me :-)
We started off with a swim in the pool at noon-- the weather was so nice and warm and the pool was heated comfortably, too. Todd and I splashed around in the pool and jacuzzi while Allan played on his laptop in a nearby patio chair. It was also a good way for me to get some much-needed exercise after being under the weather for so long.
For dinner, Allan glazed a ham and made dressing as well as mashed potatoes from red potatoes instead of the traditional Russet. And they came out delicious! Sweet and creamy and, because we couldn't find the potato masher, even more yummy with a few hints of solid pieces in the mix. We finished a bottle of Martinelli's sparkling cider and had sweet potato pie (well, I haven't had my slice yet, I was too full from those delicious potatoes!) Todd's art creations from school adorned the table as centerpieces: a turkey made out of a pine cone and a plain paper cutout.
All in all, the meal was a resounding success-- even Todd seemed to think so-- he ate faster than he usually did :-) And we really liked how the potatoes turned out-- red potatoes are definitely a winner!
Relaxing evenings with family-- whether it's 3 or 8-- such a nice way to ring in the holidays!
These are the best days in my opinion. For the past couple years, I go to my mom and dads house and it's just the 3 of us for dinner. It is SO much more enjoyable than the chaotic field days of 20+ family members that I remember as a child! Glad you had a nice Thanksgiving hun. Also, I got the email about you changing blog sites..AGAIN..hehehe. I look forward to your continued posts. I have lost my desire to blog about much of anything in recent months...where did your inspiration come from?
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ReplyDeleteI think my inspiration came mostly from a friend from church, Tabitha-- she's a writer and is also striving to blog regularly-- every day, as a matter of fact.
Another part of it is realizing that just keeping the juices flowing by posting every day (or nearly every day)-- even when I don't feel like it-- plays a big role in keeping me motivated to post when real inspiration strikes.
Another friend blogs on Livejournal, and the majority of his posts are only few-sentence updates about what's going on his life, but he affirmed that even doing just that helps keep the wheels greased.
I'll bet if you just picked up and started posting again, even if it's just mundane things a lot of the time, you'll soon pick it back up.