Because Neil, Emily, and the Wolks had to leave Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving on Wednesday.
First of all, it was great for my family to stay at the Air Bnb. It's like a two minute drive from Dad's house, as opposed to a 40 minute drive between the ranch and Dad's house. We got to sleep in until the kids woke up naturally, and when they did wake up we didn't have to worry about waking anyone else up. I gave them a bowl of Cheerios which they happily ate together and we turned on the big screen TV for them to watch Super Simple Songs. They both seemed pretty impressed with that huge TV, which is on a table only a couple feet off the ground. For them it's probably like a mini movie screen. We got ready to go in our own time and then drove the very short drive back to Tejon.
When we arrived Dad was making pies. Zoey, Rocket, and Sola were cutting hearts, stars, and flowers out of extra pie dough to make pretty pie toppings. There was a lot of flour around, and I let the kids know that because Clara has celiac she can't touch the flour and if she does she has to wash her hands. They seemed to understand and take it seriously. I like when kids get to the age where they feel sort of honored at being given real responsibility.
I was also gratified to see how seriously Dad was taking it. A year ago when we arrived for Thanksgiving he went to hug Clara while he was covered in flour (he just didn't remember), but in contrast this year when the older kids were done with pie decorations he instructed Rocket to go to the master bathroom, change all his clothes, and wash off his hands and arms. He also had Rocket get Zoey a chance of clothes, all so that they wouldn't likely get flour on Clara. Dad still had several hours to go in the kitchen, and so he kept reminding people to please keep Clara out of the kitchen because of the flour. It is a relief to see the people around us take her Celiac seriously and make sure she's protected. Of course when she's a bit older it will be much easier because she will understand and keep an eye out for herself, but right now when she doesn't get it the extra eyes help.
Not long after we got there, Jack took the kids and Julie and I walked to Safeway to get contact solution for her and gluten free pizza for Clara. After we walked past her old house and then back to Tejon, visiting the whole way, mostly talking about marriage and kids. It's good to have a sibling that can relate on that level.
The next few hours were actually pretty relaxed. I visited with Dad and Jill and whoever was in the kitchen/dining area while helping Dad prep different dishes. Jane napped for a long time on Dad's bed. Clara played very happily either directly with the other kids or near them with the fake food, especially the ice cream scoops and cones, which she loved. Jack even found time to do a couple quizzes.
Clara and Malcolm dump clementines out of their truck.
Eventually everyone arrived from the ranch (Neil, Emily, Ellen, Everett, Henry) to help out. There was a bit of chaos as Dad tried to make sure there were enough ovens to keep everything warm, and Jack and Everett ran some dishes to our Air Bnb to use the oven there. I mostly watched the kids and stayed out of it. When Jane first got up from her nap she was a bit stoic but she warmed up eventually.
I was also kind of excited that this year we officially had a kids table. We pulled the coffee table from the front living room into the dining room and Zoey, Malcolm, and Clara sat at it. For a second Clara was upset because she wanted a chair, but we found a step stool for her and she was fine with it. She ate her gluten free pizza and didn't care in the slightest that everyone else was eating other stuff. I guess she's used to it. Even better, Jennifer brought individual gluten free pies, so after dinner Clara got her own apple pie. I thought that was really sweet, since she'd been pointing out the pies all day.
At the grown up table I got to eat in relative peace thanks to Julie taking Jane for a while and then Jane eating happily from Jack's lap. There were waaaaay more cheesy potatoes than we could possibly go through, but that's a good problem to have. There was also rare steak, which was awesome, and Jennifer's cranberry sauce was excellent! It's some kind of finely diced fruit salad type recipe including celery for crunch and nuts. Really the best cranberry dish I've had for Thanksgiving. Neil and Emily made a lot of vegan food and their vegan "cheesy" potatoes were pretty good. Their vegan spaghetti (zoodles = zucchini noodles) and sausage was delicious too. I wouldn't have even known it was vegan if Julie hadn't told me.
After dinner there were plenty of hands to help clean up and Dad was playing a lot of very cheerful dance songs he likes. Jane had really started to warm up and would kind of sway to some of the music. She also does this little move where she puts one arm behind her back and the other across her stomach and kind of bounces her knees a bit. It was a big hit, especially with Paul and his parents. Paul seems to really love little kids.
Also now that Dad was finally not covered in flour he was able to play with Clara. She had been calling for him ("Papi! Papi look!") all day to show him what she was doing but he had to watch from a distance because of the baking. But now he could play. He went down to the family room and danced with Clara, Malcolm, Zoey, and sometimes Rocket. Malcolm in particular was getting waaaay into the music and just going nuts. Apparently he especially likes 'No excuses' by Meghan Trainor, because when Julie put that song on he sort of froze for a second in a look of delight and astonishment, and then started dancing crazy fast. It was great. Clara had a similar reaction to the recent favorite: 'I've been everywhere man' by the Road Hammers. They sing the verses very quickly and she marches her feet up and down as fast as she can while yelling 'Faster!' It's awesome.
The day before Sola had asked me if we could play The Paper Game or Quiplash and I told her not that day but probably on our Thanksgiving day. She had mentioned it once or twice during today also, and Harrison also asked about it, so clearly they were excited. Neil kindly set up Quiplash on his laptop (hooked up to the big screen) and a lot of people got to play. It was a big hit. It's great to have a game that allows you to sit still on the couch and laugh, and in our big and chaotic family it's also great to have a game that can keep moving along even when various people get interrupted and have to leave and come back to it. It also worked out well that my siblings were playing but so were Harrison, Sola, and even Rocket (Emily lent him her phone) because there were sort of two groups of humor and it caused a lot of split votes, instead of one side dominating with only one person the odd man out. It was also a good way to wind down as the music is a lot more low key compared to the dance music Dad had been playing.
After a few rounds of that it was time for those of us with small children to go back to our Air Bnb's and put them to bed. I helped Jack get our kids to bed, and then I went back to Tejon and Dad and I drove up to the ranch to join Neil, Ellen, and Everett for DOOM! (Neil had been trying to get the DOOM network working with a lot of frustration, and he had previously mentioned he didn't know what the point was since we'd never get a chance to play anyway without me staying at the ranch. I told him I would absolutely make a trip to the ranch to play DOOM, which I think is extremely fun, so he felt more motivated and figured it all out). Dad watched us for a good hour, and we of course were laughing our heads off. At first there were some settings issues with this version of DOOM and none of the guns were reappearing, so we were having a lot of pistol fights which we still found hilarious. Neil fixed it eventually though. Also this version allowed us to change the colors of our players to anything, so I was black and Ellen was purple. This version also showed your rank (X out of 4) and the spread between first and last place, which was kind of cool. We played for a little over two hours. There were at least two points where I was laughing so hard I had to stop playing and just get it together. I love it.
I was pretty exhausted when I got back home so it was good to get into our already warm apartment and pass out. Overall an excellent Thanksgiving.
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