Thanksgiving Dinner in Bits and Pieces

We had intended to do things differently this year. That was a choice I made - in part because it was the first Thanksgiving since Daddy died and I didn't really want a visible reminder of an empty chair near the dessert table. You can be sure that would be where he was staked out...getting through the necessary main menu to get to the cakes and pies. I am my father's daughter in that respect.

However, I sure didn't intend for things to be as different as they were. Of course we didn't plan on having lunch in a psychiatric hospital with our son. I didn't plan on Jacob being sick Sunday so he and I didn't get to go to the church Thanksgiving dinner where we had intended to eat together . I didn't plan on Billski being sick today so that he had to go home after lunch with Ryan and missed dinner with Carly, Jacob and Wesley.

After lunch with Ryan, I took them to see A Christmas Carol and then we went to Golden Corral for dinner. Besides for the absent family members and the sickness, we really enjoyed the new way of doing things. I think that will be our new family tradition -- dinner and a movie. And popcorn. Must have popcorn.

I'm not a huge fan of Golden Corral, but after we sat and ate for an hour, we all got up and left. And left the dirty dishes. And I didn't cook a thing. And the kids were satisfied. And full. And happy. And life was good.