TGIF

We did it!  We made it though Thanksgiving.  How about you?  We cooked the turkey on the grill for the third year in a row.  I've done it every which way, with a roasting pan on top of the grate, bare ass turkey on top of the grate, and turkey in ceramic pot down low next to the coals.  I think this years method was the most successful.  Down low, you get ash in the drippings.  No good gravy from that mess.  Up bare ass naked you have the same problem:  your drip pan is underneath next to the coals.  Ash issues.  On top in its own pan, perfect.  It blows my mind that a 13 lb turkey only takes 2.5 - 3 hours to cook and you don't have to baste one single time.

We took said turkey over to the kids' in Sacramento.  The usual suspects, and boy do we like them!  Fun people, smart, humorous, with several smart as a whip kids to boot.

There was the usual after dinner dance off in the living room.  We do allow for some digestion before hand, we're not crazy.

The best was the Daddy's Dance -- big strapping guys who barely moved at all.  I mean really, they need some belly dancing lessons to loosen up those hips!  I laughed until I was coughing.  I escaped participation this year.  Feeling a tad too full.

Then we stopped by my parents on our way home.  Totally different vibe.  Quiet civility around the fireplace, polite conversation, dad with his chef's coat on spinning tales we've all heard a gazillion times.  Some things never change.  And mom, well, she was just wiped out.  We didn't stay long.  Next year, with any luck, we'll have dinner with them at the retirement home.  The other house is more fun, but our time with my folks is short, and so.

We were sent home with homemade Hamantaschen and was I ever grateful.  Little triangular cookies filled with preserves, kind of like the thumbprint cookies of my youth.  Usually eaten at Purim, Gail decided what the hell, and brought them all the way from New York City.  She even made the fillings:  apricot jam, poppy seed and fig.  Oh. Yum.

Gail and I also discovered we will both be at the Women's March in DC in January.  She's only coming down for the day, so it's unlikely we'll meet up, but we exchanged cell phone numbers just in case.  She's a feisty lady, a --dare I say it? -- Nasty Woman.  Sometimes to the horror of her children.  Good job, Gail, I say.  If you can still embarrass your children when you're an elder, more power to you!

Now for a quiet weekend.  But first, I'm donating blood tomorrow morning.  Then, it's all relaxation, all the time.  I'll be in my sheepskin slippers and sweat pants.  Ah.......