Thanksgiving 2012

Asay boys opening their Christmas gift from their grandparents

Each year our family's Thanksgiving events seem to shrink, which I suppose has its positives and negatives. My parents and siblings have all fled Western Eden, so we now only celebrate this holiday with Meg's family, which has also slowly been exiting the state, and we are down to three families who live in Oregon. Meg's parents also were in town visiting. For the second year we gathered in Dallas, Oregon--the central place between the three of us--where my sister-in-law lives.

We departed Portland mid-morning. Ibrahim, our current boarder, also joined us, probably drawn to the idea of playing soccer with the in-laws. Last year's match was a chilly, sloppy affair fought out on a flooded field of grass (oh how I miss the artificial turf fields of Sherwood in times of yore); we saw serious rains earlier in the week, but it fortunately cleared up enough and dried out the fields somewhat--even to the point that Meg and Edward joined us. I played in my FiveFingers, of course, much to the amazement of the kids who would ask me how I kick the ball sans-shoes without hurting myself. I am confident that I have the strongest feet in America, so it's absolutely clear to me what my feet don't hurt. The field was also within walking distance of the family gathering place, so that was an added bonus.

If Thanksgiving was only about the feast, I think all of the kids would hate the holiday. But after spending five minutes gorging on rolls and drowning themselves in sparkling apple cider, they evacuated the dining area en masse and left room for the adults to make multiple trips to the serving area for seconds (no thirds this year, I think--most people had just finished a game that forced you to watch how much you eat).

Last year we had three pregnant women at the party, this year we had none. Babies seem to come in waves in this family, although most of us are getting kind of old, at least in terms of bearing children, so I wonder if this could be the end, and the next wave will be those babies having their own babies.