In Search of Myself: Thanksgiving in August?

Turkey1 My mom called me Tuesday and asked if I wanted to stay for dinner when I picked Jake up. "Sure," I said. "What are we having?" She said "I was in the mood to cook . . . so I have a turkey in the oven. Then I'll make everything to go with it." "Wait, like a TURKEY turkey?" "Yeah." "You have an entire turkey in the oven." "Yeah." "WHY." "Because I felt like cooking." Ummm, ok. My theory is, she's a little hormonal. But whatever. I'll take free, home-cooked food whenever I can get it. When Priscilla called me to ask what I was doing that night, I told her mom was cooking and that she may as well come over and have dinner with us. Mom likes company anyway, and hadn't seen the girls for a while.

Anyway, we ate about 6 p.m., then just hung out. Kathy was already at work, Lou stayed at home, tired from work. Jake was fast asleep when I got to mom's house, and all the way through dinner -- I hadn't seen him all day, so it sucked that he was out of it, but on the other hand it was really nice to have a quiet, peaceful dinner. My parents really like Priscilla, and I think they were excited to have someone to talk to other than me and each other. Elauna played quietly by herself on the floor (she is SO the opposite of a certain other little girl that hangs out at mom's house, who is completely high maintenance.) Aowyn sat in Jake's booster seat and very cutely demanded our food and attention. And HOLY COW, the food was good.

After dinner Jake finally woke up, so the kids all played while we recovered from eating way too much. I kept trying to start getting ready to leave, and my mom kept finding a way to stall and keep us all there. (My granny -- mom's grandmother -- was the same way. A 15 minute visit with granny always turned out to be a 4 hour commitment.) Jake and Elauna ran around the house playing, while we passed Aowyn around like an offering plate. She's SO sweet and lovable, and will happily let people hold her (although she PREFERS me if she has the choice, ha ha!) She was scared of Sadie-dog, but it was SO cute the way she was acting. Finally at 9 p.m., I asked mom if she just wanted to keep Jake for the night since I'd have to be back in exactly 9 hours to drop him off again (it would be completely pointless to take him home JUST to sleep, then turn around and come back. Letting him stay saves me 18 miles/45 minutes total of driving.) So once I DID leave a half hour later, Nana gave Jake a bath and put him to bed.

Good food, good company, good times.