Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 24, 2022

I have never laughed so hard, so many times in my life. There were at LEAST six times when I thought I just needed to crawl away from the funniness or my abdomen might explode. I think it is good exercise! Better than sit ups!

My sister, Donna, and her husband, Michael, came last night. We got home from glass class exactly at the same time they arrived, which was so fun. Since Alexander is still stick and couldn’t come to dinner, Keith and Michael went to the grocery store and got him catfish fillets and the bits needs for him to create a lovely meal for himself (of food he likes – no traditional Thanksgiving food). While they were gone, Donna figured out that she had seasonally appropriate pants (brown), but no fall-ish shirt. I gave her a brown cardigan and she was set.

But was she? She kept saying it was too small. Let’s roll back. I gave her one of MY sweaters. Me – a roly poly individual of considerable mass. She is a stick person. We recently noticed that the diameter of my wrists is LITERALLY twice the diameter of hers. So, she has on my cardigan and says it is too small. She showed me that the sleeves were a little short. It was true. But did that matter? No? Brown sweater = win for Thanksgiving. I took a shower and got dressed and was coming down the steps and she was kind of wobbling around on the steps very quietly moaning “I need a bigger sweater.” She took off the sweater and I put it on. IT”S BIGGER ON ME! How is that possible? My hands are covered up by the sleeves and it’s all gappy under the arms. What? She started listing, “My head is bigger – your head is a little pin. My feet are big, my arms are long…I’m a jumbo shrimp!!” I had to sit down because I was laughing so much. I was going to title today’s blog “My Sister is a Jumbo Shrimp”, but then the rest of the day happened. (We found her a really nice, soft sweater of Keith’s – too small for him – that she loved the fit of – nice fall color, too.)

I don’t remember what all we laughed about while cooking dinner – while eating dinner – while coloring the tablecloth – while going for a walk – (Keith stayed home and washed up the whole kitchen. Thank you, Keith) – but I DO remember the best time of the day. My niece, Emma, and Levi joined us for the day. They brought a new game called Wavelength and it was great fun. You got two opposites like Popular/Unpopular, Movie Better with Addition of Godzilla/Movie Not Better with Addition of Godzilla – and a secret indicator of how much on one side or the other you wanted your team to guess – for example: a little less useful in an emergency or a lot less useful in an emergency (mashed potatoes didn’t get any points on that one). Anyway, when the categories were Sandwich vs Not a Sandwich and Michael gave the clue hot dog – as not too far into the Sandwich side everyone but Donna agreed. Donna does NOT think a hot dog is a sandwich. AT ALL. Let me be clear – a hot dog is NOT a sandwich. She had lots of reasons why. All of them were funny.

I know it’s not funny to read about funny times, but please delight in our delight. We were really thankful to be together and laughing instead of zooming in from far away. I am thankful for anyone who is reading this and sharing in our fun!

I got two of the nicest messages today: one was a terrific note from a (NINTH grade) student thanking me for my help this fall and wishing me a happy Thanksgiving and another from my friend who comes to swim in the summer even though she moved north. Her five-year-old said his thanks at the table today, “I am thankful for my family and Barbara. That’s all.” Wow. You get a shout out like that, and it brings tears to your eyes.

Happy Thanksgiving!!