12 Oakdale

The chronology: Spaulding, Molly and Teddy flew in the Friday before Thanksgiving for a week at the timeshare her dad owns. Along with Steph and her family, they joined us for dinner: chicken noodle soup and pasta e fagiliol with sourdough  bread. The next 2 days, they had tickets to Disney. That worked out because we were booked for LAWD on Saturday. I made the cranberry tiramisu on Sunday. We pressed our electric camping cooler into serviced to have room in the refrigerator. Mary, Ryan, Bella, and Remi arrived on the red eye Monday morning. Everyone came for waffles mid morning. Swimming in our cold pool, chasing poor Gracie with the laser, cousin bonding. We took hotdogs to the timeshare to grill for dinner.  Tuesday, Steph got us all tickets to Universal. She even borrowed the Senior VP of Entertainment’s gold pass so Grant and I had free valet parking. It also got 6 people into the Express Pass lane on each ride. Exceptionally valuable for the Velociraptor roller coaster....

After Dad married Marcella, Thanksgiving was when our blended families got together for a big meal with my sisters, stepsisters, current husbands, children, grandchildren, stepchildren, and friends. The people who wanted sage in the dressing argued with those that didn’t. The turkey was dry, the cranberry sauce canned. It was wonderful. When Dad died, I assumed I would continue this tradition with my children and their families. My birthday is always near Thanksgiving, so we could celebrate both at the same time. Plus everyone has Black Friday off, (except retail workers of course), so a long weekend for me to enjoy my family. And everyone could go their chosen ways at Christmas. Perfect. Return to reality. This year, Spaulding, Molly, and Ryann had to work Friday. My kids are spread all over the country. No annual all-family celebration tradition any more.  Instead, a delightful dinner with way too much food (okay, that’s the same) at Steph’s. Kyle cooked a turkey, they made over ...

I’ve planned a quiet and relaxed 74th birthday. I’m up at my usual 5:00 AM, made coffee, fed the cat, done my ab exercises. Now time to read magazine articles and learn one more bird order (28 down; 3 to go, unless the ornithology people reconfigure the groups, which they seem to be doing, now that DNA testing is widely available. My next project is to learn the passerine families. Might be possible.) Breakfast, then some yard work to finish weeding and trimming the west poolside bed. The weather has turned coolish, low 70’s, so I don’t have to be out at o’dark hundred. I’m cutting most of the salvias way back, to encourage more flowering. At the same time, I don’t want to cut back too much because all the bees, wasps, and flies still need places to feed. A delicate balance. After lunch of the very last of the Thanksgiving leftovers, we’re going to the Garden Theater in Winter Garden for Moonshine and Mistletoe: An Appalachian  Christmas Tale . My review will be posted later. Then ...

We celebrated Thanksgiving with 19 of our family, including a new grandnephew and a new perhaps significant other. Two turkeys, 4 kinds of stuffing, veggies, etc, with all the trimmings, plus 7 pies, banana bread, and brownies. Then Stephanie brought out the chocolate cake she’d made for my birthday, cookies, cupcakes, and Rice Krispie treat “drumsticks”.  Fortunately, our family is all vaccinated, with the exception of the younger children. We didn’t have any of the fights other families had. My neighbor has a niece and her husband who refused to be vaccinated, so there was much deliberation about how to handle the situation. Conveniently, the couple and their teenage children all came down with Covid, so were too sick to come to dinner. As they say, karma is a bitch. I was the delighted recipient of a big-numbered rain gauge from sister Peg, a blinged-out Christmas flamingo and flamingo-decorated bowls from Step and Clara, a set of prime-rated ear buds from my sweetie, and 2 of t...

This year, my birthday fell on Thanksgiving, and we celebrated with our children, including Mary, who came via video call. We invited them, then vacillated about canceling. Covid is on the rise; our children are careful; we’ve been so good, don’t fall off the wagon now; it is too risky. Back and forth we went, in our minds, and with each other.  We decided to proceed. Molly got sick on Monday, so she and Spaulding would have to miss. That meant Patten couldn’t stay with them to see their new house. Steph zipped to Publix to grab potatoes since Molly wouldn’t be bringing them. Molly’s Covid test came back negative. They decided to come. We will have lots of potatoes. Thursday morning, Patten called from on the road near West Palm. His coworker and buddy just called him: he was feeling like he had the flu. Patten said he felt fine, but his hypochondria was kicking in. Should he keep driving? I said yes. My throat started to hurt in sympathy. Friday Patten learned his pal does have Co...