I survived a family Thanksgiving
I'm back from my trip to Skokie, IL for a very family weekend. I took the train this time, which worked out amazingly well. The price was a bit less than flying would have been, and I was able to get about three ounces of lace weight spinning done on my miniSpinner during the two trips. Because the return train gets in at 10 pm, I came back on the Saturday train, giving me an entire Sunday to myself. Also a win.
On Wednesday, I took the train in, and was met by my mother at the station. After a couple of hours at her place, we went to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner and then to see a play: The Book of Will. It's about the people behind the creation of the Shakespeare First Folio, and it was excellent.
On Thursday morning, we went bowling. This is a tradition going back over 50 years that apparently started with mothers shoving husbands and kids out of the house so they could get all the cooking done. Now that things are easier, we get entire families. It's also a cold potluck brunch, with bagels and coffee and bakery items.We took up 14 lanes at the bowling alley.
When I got back, I watched the Vikings beat the Lions, which was very satisfactory.
Our Thanksgiving dinner was at my brother's and sister-in-law's in Skokie, IL. My SIL is a so-so cook and apparently cares more about no-fat and no-salt than she does about taste. The turkey was okay, but the baked sweet potatoes were not quite done and the cut-up oven-baked regular potatoes were leathery and she didn't have any salt on the table to put on them. The stuffing she put in the turkey was just barely moist enough to eat; the out-of-the-turkey stuffing was chunks of bread and celery, literally. There were also three kinds of quick bread, all dry. My guess is that she just left out whatever fat the recipe called for and didn't substitute. (I'd kept all of this to myself, of course, but the day after, my mother said something about SIL being a terrible cook, and that the no-fat thing probably had a lot to do with it.)
There was plenty to eat, though. My mother brought her wonderful ratatouille and cranberry sauce, my cousin brought raw veggies and homemade hummus for appetizers, and for dessert one person brought cut-up fruit, I brought oatmeal ginger bars based on an Australian flapjack recipe, and my mother brought apple and pumpkin pie from Costco.
There were nine of us there, family and friends. It was supposed to be eleven, but the two Chinese students my SIL invited via the Northwestern foreign student office never showed. SIL was disappointed, but the rest of us weren't. It's really hard to have nine people who've known each other for years have to try to make conversation with total strangers. I've been the total stranger, and I'm not fond of being on that end of things, either. I'd much rather be at a "widows and orphans" dinner where everyone is a total stranger to each other. There was also a certain amount of elephant-in-the-room about the fact that my oldest nephew wasn't there. He was married last year, and this year he spent Thanksgiving with his wife's family. My SIL was very gracious about it, but with a certain edge in her voice.
(Lest anyone misconstrue things: I like my SIL a lot, but we have different views about many things (not politics, thankfully). And she and my brother raised three wonderful sons, so mostly I just roll my eyes and keep my mouth shut.)
On Friday, I made my annual Black Friday pilgrimage to Lands' End when they opened at 8 a.m. and bought two turtleneck tops, a fuzzy half-zip top, and two chamois shirts (to replace the one that wore out). Unfortunately, they didn't have any black shirts, so I settled for navy and charcoal. I mostly wear them as layering overshirts, so neutral colors are good. I also bought four more turtlenecks at the online site. Everything was 50% off, and the total damage was around $150.
Then we had lunch at a local deli with my mother's Hadassah group. We were a little early, and my mother suggested we stop at a game store and asked if I recommended anything that the family could play. I suggested Apples to Apples. The store was sold out of the full version, but they had the smaller "to go" one, and she bought that. The clerk tried to sell her on Cards Against Humanity instead, but I decided that that would definitely be pushing things. Lunch for me was soup (mushroom barley) and a half sandwich (corned beef), and chocolate phosphate -- all things I don't get in Minneapolis. My innards rebelled a bit about them later, but it was worth it.
In the evening, we had my brother's family over for Shabbat dinner (including the missing nephew and his wife), and played Apples to Apples, which went well.
On Saturday, my mother and I puttered around a bit, then she took me to the train station in the early afternoon. The train trip was properly uneventful, and my car was in the parking lot where I left it. I got home shortly before 11 pm.
All in all, a very pleasant weekend, but a bit stressful with all the socializing involved for the introvert I am.
On Wednesday, I took the train in, and was met by my mother at the station. After a couple of hours at her place, we went to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner and then to see a play: The Book of Will. It's about the people behind the creation of the Shakespeare First Folio, and it was excellent.
On Thursday morning, we went bowling. This is a tradition going back over 50 years that apparently started with mothers shoving husbands and kids out of the house so they could get all the cooking done. Now that things are easier, we get entire families. It's also a cold potluck brunch, with bagels and coffee and bakery items.We took up 14 lanes at the bowling alley.
When I got back, I watched the Vikings beat the Lions, which was very satisfactory.
Our Thanksgiving dinner was at my brother's and sister-in-law's in Skokie, IL. My SIL is a so-so cook and apparently cares more about no-fat and no-salt than she does about taste. The turkey was okay, but the baked sweet potatoes were not quite done and the cut-up oven-baked regular potatoes were leathery and she didn't have any salt on the table to put on them. The stuffing she put in the turkey was just barely moist enough to eat; the out-of-the-turkey stuffing was chunks of bread and celery, literally. There were also three kinds of quick bread, all dry. My guess is that she just left out whatever fat the recipe called for and didn't substitute. (I'd kept all of this to myself, of course, but the day after, my mother said something about SIL being a terrible cook, and that the no-fat thing probably had a lot to do with it.)
There was plenty to eat, though. My mother brought her wonderful ratatouille and cranberry sauce, my cousin brought raw veggies and homemade hummus for appetizers, and for dessert one person brought cut-up fruit, I brought oatmeal ginger bars based on an Australian flapjack recipe, and my mother brought apple and pumpkin pie from Costco.
There were nine of us there, family and friends. It was supposed to be eleven, but the two Chinese students my SIL invited via the Northwestern foreign student office never showed. SIL was disappointed, but the rest of us weren't. It's really hard to have nine people who've known each other for years have to try to make conversation with total strangers. I've been the total stranger, and I'm not fond of being on that end of things, either. I'd much rather be at a "widows and orphans" dinner where everyone is a total stranger to each other. There was also a certain amount of elephant-in-the-room about the fact that my oldest nephew wasn't there. He was married last year, and this year he spent Thanksgiving with his wife's family. My SIL was very gracious about it, but with a certain edge in her voice.
(Lest anyone misconstrue things: I like my SIL a lot, but we have different views about many things (not politics, thankfully). And she and my brother raised three wonderful sons, so mostly I just roll my eyes and keep my mouth shut.)
On Friday, I made my annual Black Friday pilgrimage to Lands' End when they opened at 8 a.m. and bought two turtleneck tops, a fuzzy half-zip top, and two chamois shirts (to replace the one that wore out). Unfortunately, they didn't have any black shirts, so I settled for navy and charcoal. I mostly wear them as layering overshirts, so neutral colors are good. I also bought four more turtlenecks at the online site. Everything was 50% off, and the total damage was around $150.
Then we had lunch at a local deli with my mother's Hadassah group. We were a little early, and my mother suggested we stop at a game store and asked if I recommended anything that the family could play. I suggested Apples to Apples. The store was sold out of the full version, but they had the smaller "to go" one, and she bought that. The clerk tried to sell her on Cards Against Humanity instead, but I decided that that would definitely be pushing things. Lunch for me was soup (mushroom barley) and a half sandwich (corned beef), and chocolate phosphate -- all things I don't get in Minneapolis. My innards rebelled a bit about them later, but it was worth it.
In the evening, we had my brother's family over for Shabbat dinner (including the missing nephew and his wife), and played Apples to Apples, which went well.
On Saturday, my mother and I puttered around a bit, then she took me to the train station in the early afternoon. The train trip was properly uneventful, and my car was in the parking lot where I left it. I got home shortly before 11 pm.
All in all, a very pleasant weekend, but a bit stressful with all the socializing involved for the introvert I am.