Back from Thanksgiving

[3rdragon]

I had a quite decent Thanksgiving - or rather, Thanksgivings, because I had one on Thursday with my dad's family and one on Friday with my mom's family. My relatives are still conservative, but everyone toed the line and no awkward subjects came up, so that was okay. My youngest cousin is still as cute as anything - he was very proud to tell us all that he is four and a half. On mom's side, we were joined by two graduate students from China who nobody actually knew but who didn't have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving. That was a little awkward at first, but then my aunt brought out an atlas so that they could show us (that is, my cousin) where in China they grew up. Then, of course, my cousin had to pull out the globe and show them where they grew up, what the continents are, where Philadelphia is, where all the various bodies of water are (he really likes reading the names of oceans), and so on. He was not without encouragement, I will admit. So that broke the ice (as I overheard my grandmother say to my aunt, he's the perfect little ambassador). The meal was less formal than it sometimes is (the table wasn't big enough for everyone, so we ate on our laps in the living room), and that helped too. And of course the food was excellent. The food at the other grandma's wasn't bad either - certainly better than the cafeteria food here - and for once, the stuffing didn't bear a huge resemblance to croutons.

It was a little strange being home, but VERY good to see friends. It was also a little strange to get back here, but Tonje and I have been discussing how Ziskind is a soap opera - we may actually film some - and that got things back to being just as crazy as usual.

M.