Holidazed

I just dropped Jess off at the airport.  She's flying to Santa Fe to visit her dad for a few days.  She asked me to get her a Furkey (fake turkey) this weekend before they run out, so I stopped at the Arbor Lodge New Seasons before things got crazy.  I may have gotten a few bachelorette food items as well.  Shopping before breakfast... 

It was already getting busy when I left the store at 9:45AM. Scary.

We've been pondering all week what we're going to do for Thanksgiving.  I was not a big fan of the holidays before, and my distaste for the latter third of the year has only grown now that I'm mom-less.  Before, I didn't have think about it--I just went where mom went, ate myself silly, and took a nap.

I still have plenty of family in town, but it's complicated by the fact that, although we've been together for almost three years now, I can't take Jess to a meal with my relatives unless we bring our own vegetarian food.  Oddly, it's worse at holiday meals than just smaller get-togethers.  I've gotten used to a different style of cooking and eating since being with Jess, and even before we met, I didn't do a lot of 'traditional' black/southern style cooking. 

Even the vegetables have meat in them; ham in the collard greens, turkey stock in the dressing, bacon in the green beans...  For me, TG with the family is a nice opportunity to eat a bunch of foods that remind me of childhood (and having a mom).  For Jess, it's a frustrating exercise in the opposite of what a holiday meal should be like. 

Our friends all have plans and I was leaning towards staying home most of the day, making a dinner of dead mom favorites and having a quiet day.  Then J's friend Therese invited us up to Seattle for dinner with two friends of hers who we love.  They've been wanting her to bring us up to visit and we were thinking about it, but didn't really want to pay for a hotel. Peg & Anne-Marie figured this out and have arranged to borrow an RV from a friend.  That pretty much fixed my only reservation about the trip, so it looks like we'll be headed north.  They might even sleep in the RV and let us have their room--they like to travel and camp, and think it sounds fun. More power to 'em.  Usually Jess doesn't have enough days off around a holiday to travel, but she's off for a minimum of three weeks because of her wrist surgery so this will be a nice change.