Home again and gone

Strange year, this one. My first Thanksgiving at home in . . . four years? Five? And now, what with the storm system that's going to obliterate Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan on Christmas Eve, my first Christmas away from home in my life. My sister, Weasel, lives out here now, so we'll spend Christmas with each other, but still. Feels strange. Atalanta and Speardane, I expect to take you up on your recent offers of holiday company - d33p, I may also join you for a macabre, schadenfreude-filled Christmas Eve at the casino. It will be a nice holiday, I think, but strange.



At Thanksgiving, we got together with our extended family. There were over thirty of us - the largest family gathering I can remember. When my immediate family gets together, there are usually from five to seven of us - occasionally up to ten - but this was a banner year. We were a crazy mix of nationalities (lots of Brits and Canadians, Americans, a Korean, etc.) and religions (majority Jewish, plus Congregationalists, atheists, agnostics - no damn Baptists, though, I think) - we had a few people over 90 and a couple of infants. Before we ate, we took a few minutes to go around the room (three long tables!) and have everyone say something - kind of a giving of thanks, but nothing I've ever done before. There were so many of us. A few brought up the craziness of the economy and the worry of uncertain times, and some just praised the food, but most of our comments found their way back to saying how happy we were to see so many of our kin gathered in one place, safe for an evening at least, while the snow filtered down outside, silent and beautiful.