I hope everyone (in the US) had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I am recuperating!

Paul and I are empty nesters. Our daughters, Staci and Cori, and their families live about thirty minutes away and our son, Ari, lives in Boston. For the holidays they all move back home for the weekend. They decided ten years ago, when Ari went away to college in Boston, that holidays would be spent here, all together, and all weekend. I didn’t argue.

Thanksgiving buffet

It’s lots of planning and cooking but there are no surprises. They crave the same menu, beef brisket or roast leg of lamb, sweet potato souffle, noodle pudding, salad, some green vegetable, pies and cookies. This year we added potato latkes to dinner. For breakfast it’s french toast made with challah, an egg bread. 

Thank goodness they come with their own plastic containers to take the left overs home when they leave. I’ve been known to make extras of things so they can bring it home. For some reason, they don’t want this menu during the year, only for the holidays.

After dinner Cori told us how Thanksgiving and Chanukah were similar both speak about religious freedom. For the Pilgrims it was fleeing from England for the right to worship who they wanted. For the Hebrews it was against the Selecuid Empire (Greek) for the very same reason. 

They did not, however, want to celebrate Chanukah this weekend. They wanted a separate holiday for another weekend get together. Frankly, I don’t think they had their shopping done and that was fine. I don’t have mine done either. They’ve decided to celebrate the holiday Christmas weekend.

Uncle Ari and Olivia in a headstand battle

We spent lots of time watching movies, playing games with the small kids, and eating. The grandchildren wanted to see Frozen so Sunday morning we all went to the movies. The girls went home afterwards. Staci had lesson plans to write and she needed to get the kids to bed early for school. Cori had to get things ready for Chris’ business trip on Monday morning. Ari went back to Boston on Monday.

It’s quiet and time to plan. They’ll all be back in four weeks. Maybe I’ll change up the menu and make chicken or salmon. Naw, why change a good thing. It’s perfect just the way it is.

Happy Holiday everyone!