Family Thanksgiving Highlight Reel

Before you say anything, I know it’s early. It was the only weekend everyone had available. Before we start let me give you some background and a basic family tree. For the sake of clarity I’ll specify names.

To start off, I do not have a lot of close family. My dads family all live up north, and the other half of my mom’s family lives in our west. Thanksgiving involves my immediate family and my moms sisters. My mom has two sisters, Aunt Jess and Aunt Mel. Mel lives in the mountains, has two houses and is married to an engineer, Jeff. Jess is 15 years younger than her and has three kids, my only real cousins. They are all older than me, two are in college (Mars and Will) and one is about to be (Jake). Married to a 6’4 redneck outdoorsman (Dan).

 Oh, and then of course my grandma, which is my only living grandparent whom I love very very much and I think she’s so awesome.

My family (the parties detailed above) has not had a thanksgiving or Christmas get together in 4 years, since before the pandemic. It split us well apart. My grandma was the only person I’ve seen regularly over the years That created some long distance general tension between my mom and her sisters. Also generally vibes have always been weird with them in adulthood (childhood stuff). The first time things began to seem kind of normal was when my eldest cousin moved in with my grandma to go to college. I got to see her once last year, then a few more times this year. Finally, my middle cousin moved in with her as well, and I got to see him a little. 

Now that you’ve seen the stage let me just say, I was nervous. I was nervous that things would be awkward with Jake, my cousin I hadn’t seen since pre pandemic. I was nervous politics would be brought up. I was nervous about Mars’ boyfriend Tommy fitting into the equation (they love each other a lot, he’s very quiet and shy and I have barely talked to him. Although he did say bye to me today so that’s a win). HOWEVER. Things went very well. Of course, there was some weird silence and looking at the floor but I had a good time. Anyways highlights.

- my uncle Dan who have not seen in 4 years. He is in the garage listening to the Beatles and preparing the turkey (frying it in hot steaming oil). He has a beard down to his chest, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. 

- Tommy was wearing this awesome button up with shells on it.

- Jake now has shoulder length side parted hair which I kind of knew would happen. He was on his switch the whole time which I also kind of expected (him and Will have always had a gaming addiction, which has always been a source of frustration for me). But he’s developed a really witty sense of humor, really see the internet influence, but I still think he’s funny.

- more on that, my cousins and my sisters and I sat at our own table, just like when we were kids. Still decided it was the Kiddie Table. Jake asked me to pass the butter (one of those can’t believe it’s not butter containers) and I said Jake you know this isn’t butter. He said it is in my heart.

- Mel went upstairs to use the bathroom and got locked in. The lock sticks on the door and the doorknob is finniky. She was banging on the door and yelling help and I thought for a minute it was my grandma falling or something. Took everyone a minute to figure out what happened, we thought their dog was just scratching the garage door. 

- After lunch a lot of us played Jackbox including Jess and Dan and my mom. It was a lot of fun! We played the  one where you write down answers to a fill in the blank prompt and the trivia one. Best answers include my mom responding to Worst thing for a Donut to be Filled with. She said hole. 

- My grandma had found a drawing I made on brown butcher paper when I was a little kid. It was a drawing of everyone with their names. All misspelled and backwards and stick figures. It was really sweet. We all looked at it and set it in the kitchen.

- Will has developed a mustache. Which wouldn’t be peculiar except his face still looks 14. I think he looks like a young man gone West in like the 1860s. Like he belongs in an old picture where he’s like a stable hand or something. I explained it to my sister and she was like what the fuck are you talking about. 

A picture for reference. I wish you all easy holidays and good familial bonding.