Gobble Gobble Day?

Happy Thanksgiving! Or Gobble Gobble Day, as the conductor of my train home called it in an extremely perky "Welcome aboard boys and girls of aaaaallllll ages!" It was trippy, let me tell you.

It's been a very Christmas-y Thanksgiving. To begin with, I slept until after 11:00. I never sleep this late at school, but for some reason I've been exhausted since Tuesday. I think my body thinks that the stress is over for the semester since I'm home, but it's wrong-- I have a paper to write over the weekend, in fact. After I finally crawled out of bed, it was about time to head over to the Country Club for dinner. Because it's just me and my mom and dad we normally don't cook a full-out dinner at home; we go out instead. We used to go to Texas to visit family there, but after I got into college, what with the short break and never being home except on break, we tend to stick around the house. Dinner was great, as usual! Wonderful mashed potatoes, turkey, caesar salad, sweet potato pie, stuffing, etc.

Then we decided that tonight we would decorate for Christmas. Accordingly, this afternoon we made sugar cookie dough and molasses cookie dough (both doughs have to chill for a few hours). Then I made supper!!! I love cooking. I'm not exactly great at it yet, but I'm getting better. Tonight I made a dish that Kay makes me at school-- rice and chicken. I also made a dish that I was taught how to make at the Governor's Palace-- potato balls. The rice and chicken turned out fantastically! I added carrots to it, which we normally don't do at school, and some parsley. The potato balls were better than I remembered, and my mom and dad loved them. After supper, I spiced some apple cider to get us all in the Christmas-y mood, and we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas" while we cut out cookies from the sugar cookie dough and baked cookies from the molasses cookie dough and decorated the tree. My dad actually stuck around for the decorating this year! (Normally he gets bored and goes upstairs.)

Then my favorite part: setting up the Nativity Scene. I put on quiet Christmas Carols and work alone, unwrapping every figurine that I know so well. The camels give me trouble every year, but I manage to fit them in. And the whole scene is crowned with the angel above the barn. Then sprinkled with 'snow.' There's something really spiritual in setting up the Nativity Scene. It's when I know Christmas is coming. I don't know how to explain it, exactly.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving!