Thanksgiving week: New traditions

Typically for us ,Thanksgiving means heading up to Sac-town and enjoying a relaxing few days of food, chillin and hanging out with friends. Not so this year, and actually I rather enjoyed it. This year, our folks are in Japan, so I volunteered to take on the responsibility of hosting and cooking Thanksgiving as well as toting my work out there for the week and taking care of the family house and dog.

Needless to say, it was a lot more work than I anticipated--as evidenced by the still-empty photo album I had planned to fill with pictures of travel from the last 2 years, the untouched pile of publications I had planned to weed out and go through and the 2nd book that remains untouched. Yes, taking care of 2 crazy kittens and a handicapped dog (who cannot be left alone for more than 3 hours at a time) seriously hampered my plans of seeing 2 old friends in town, relaxing, reading, running at Folsom Lake and biking with M when he got off work on Wednesday. Add to that shopping for Thanksgiving groceries for one full day in the near-Christmas and totally-frantic Thanksgiving shopper crowds and meeting BT's lil' sis for lunch at the god-forsaken Galleria mall, and that was pretty much my pre-Thanksgiving.

But it's all good. I'm proud to report that I'm no longer a Thanksgiving meal virgin. I've survived and conquered a full Thanksgiving meal prep and serve single-handedly and I gotta say (pat on my own back) it turned out quite well. The company was good, everyone behaved, we ate well but didnt stuff ourselves, and had two fun visitors post-dinner that added more fun conversation to the mix.

I did get one run in at Folsom Lake (damn those 10-15% grade hills!) and a bike ride to Raleys and Longs Drugs with M.
*One funny side note and commentary on GB/Roseville's perspective on bike riders: On our ride home, at an intersection, a car full of teenagers yelled at us "Are you Mormon?!" At first I couldn't understand what they said. I thought they said "Are you partying?" It was 630pm on Friday night, we were dressed in all black (jackets and pants because it was cold) and helmets, and it is GB. The only people who ride bikes in GB (rather than driving a suped-up Land Rover that will never see mud or dirt or even hills) are Mormon missionaries. So it clicked and I figured out that's what they're asking us.

Overall a great week, even though it was tough at times for me taking care of all the animals alone (before M and A showed up) and shopping and prepping for Thanksgiving dinner. But it turned out so well, I'd do it again. And hey, I can't complain about having a state-of-the-art, brand-new kitchen to cook in with every possible kitchen amenity and tool necessary to get the job done. And M was thrilled to have a dishwasher to boot.