Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Thanksgiving and.....

THANKSGIVING.  Thanksgiving is HERE.  HOLY CRAP!  How did that happen?  Wait, I wanted that to happen.  I longed for this.  Y'know, time going too fast, holidays sneaking up on you, years flying by.  The flip side of that is hoping to make to Christmas, through Christmas with memories you want your kids to have...norms change....THANK GOD.

Everything Thanksgiving, my family and a set group of friends meet up.  For many years, it was at my Mom's house, then with all the chaos, it was at a friends, and now it is back at my Mom's house.  I am going down today to check it out, wash bar wear, and help her with her Verizon Bill.  Usually, she is freaking out right about now, but she is more concerned about her Verizon Bill than anything else......this should be interesting.  Maybe she just doesn't worry about the little stuff anymore....like after the last post she called me and was like, "Herpes too?  When did you get Herpes?"  I explained it was just the medicine and, "No, Mom, no one thinks I have herpes...."

So, for this Thanksgiving I am thankful for all the normal stuff - being alive, not being in chemo, y'know, but this year my net is wider.  This year started with my Mom have a large haital (SP) hernia and needed surgery, my Dad's prostate cancer had to be treated - aggressively, we were going into a remodel and we were between houses for seven weeks.  I pureed my Mom's food, monitored her pills (even when she took them whole - BAD MOMMY), reviewed my Dad's treatment, made dinner for the family, packed leftovers for Grant.  I did this all out of the guest house at my parents.  We went to San Diego.  My Mom got back to solid foods, my Dad didn't have to sleep next to the bathroom (on a brick floor mind you) because he didn't want to wake Mom, the boys, or me.  We moved back in, loved our house, and came in on time and within budget.  We had an open house, went camping, went to Montana, dug fossils and dinosaur bones.  With all the bad came the good, with all the hardship came victory.  What a year.  And one thing that I would like to stress is that no one in my family complained - not once.  My Mom ate pureed food for three weeks - not one complaint.  My Dad slept for probably a week on a brick floor even though I gave him every other option in the world - not once.  I guess that is where I got it from.  It probably is from my Mom's Montana roots and my Father's Eastern Washington upbringing.  Not a complaint, no grace either, but not a complaint.  Thankful for the docs, thankful for the support, thankful, well, for everything.

LAST THING - I "won" a trip to Hawaii!  I was filling a seat for Karissa and Morgan and the Childhaven action and I always get a Golden Ticket which is a $150 raffle ticket.  This ticket, if drawn, lets you take something off the live auction - FOR $150.  So, I bought it and wandered around the silent auction with Karissa and, her sister, Lisa.  We were dressed to the nines and looking good I may say!  We were like, "We are NOT going home just with a receipt this year!  We are getting something!  YEAH!  YEAH!"  No, behavior and dress do not match all the time in my world.  Anyway, she got a couple silent auction items and I entered the live auction with my raffle ticket and 4 tickets to the Tacoma Rainiers (silent auction item).  I was STARVING.  There was no cheese plate this year!  The introduction starts and I am like, "Is there bread?  Can I eat that?"  Again with the behavior, I know!  FINALLY, they bring out a salad and I am like, "HOLY COW!"  People next to me were like, "What is this?  What is that?"  I was like, "Salad, oddly with a small side of potatoes, and, oh yeah, those are beets."  Golden ticket drawing beginning, "NUMBER 159!"  My ticket was 222.  I continue eating.  "Can you pass the bread?"  and all of the sudden I hear my name over the PA.  Then Karissa is very sternly said, "Ang, YOU WON!  IT IS YOUR PADDLE NUMBER."  I was like, "No, I didn't.  My ticket is 222."  Stuff face with bread.  At that point, if Karissa could flick my forehead, she would have.  She was like, "Ang - YOU WON.  GO UP THERE!"  Turn, wipe mouth, pretty sure I have salad in my teeth.  LIGHTS ON ME.  I go up on stage.  Dazed but I hope that I am going to be as eloquent and sophisticated as I was trained to be at one time.  John Curley asked me if I know which item I want and I say....PAUSE..so let's back up.....the night before, I read all the rules of the Golden ticket right before bed and read all options to Grant.  I asked him what he would want and he played along thinking and rolling his eyes to himself like, "You know the odds are against you, right?!?!?!"  All he said was, "It is hard to beat Hawaii."  UNPAUSE.  Okay, back to the stage, I know what I want.  I could have been suave and cool, but because I am me and this is my life I am QUITE sure that it came out like, "WHA - OH HAWAII!!!!  MAUI!!!  Yeah, that one......." and I am QUITE SURE I spit a couple pieces of salad out on the stage.  So, I won.  $150 for a trip to Maui.  Next year is our 20th wedding anniversary and we honeymooned there.  PERFECT.  I was never one for odds anyway.......

May you have the BEST of Thanksgivings!  Love, Ang