Thanksgiving Break

     I like Thanksgiving, it's my favorite holdiay. Low-key, not that stressful, just spending time with family you enjoy being around, watching football and eating terrific food. And, you know, having a break from school isn't bad, either.

     Got home Tuesday night, everybody was excited to see me again, got bear-hugged by Copper, and Skeet about barreled me over. Spent Wednesday resting, trying to shake off all the stress and everything from college and attempting to relax. Went grocery shopping in the moning, read a book through in about three hours and cleaned the van. Did a little bit of studying, had a headache.

     We watched some of the parade Thursday morning, Amy enjoyed that. Then it was off to Tahlequah again - this time for a visit, which seemed a little odd. The van was loaded down with seven people, two pies, a salad, several containers of pop and cranberry sauce, a guitar, a mandolin, and two rifles. Noisy trip, I'd sort of forgotten what it's like being aroud that many people all of a sudden. Nice, but takes some getting used to again.
     Got to Grandpa's around noon, where as soon as I slipped in the door my legs were lovingly-attacked by Gretchen and Fancy(I just get along well with dogs, I've sort of "got a way with them", as my grandma used to say. It's good to be considered family by so many.) We sat around and talked for a while waiting for the food to finish cooking, watched the National Dog Show on TV, admired the different breeds, most of which were exotic types that aren't normally seen in reality.
     The food was great, like usual - Ham, rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, there was also broccoli salad, deviled eggs, an experimental corn casserole, and then for dessert apple, chocolate, pecan and pumpkin pies.
     The four-wheeler was ridden, the rabbits admired, then Caleb, Trevor, Grandpa and Dad went shooting. Those of us inside tried to figure out a remedy for Gretchen's nonstop coughing while searching for good Black Friday deals, and unsuccessfully tried to come up with Christmas lists.

     We then went to Louise's to see everyone out there, talked for a while, then I played ping pong with my 8-year-old cousin Lilly. She was pretty good, we weren't keeping score or anything, but it was pretty fun. After she got tired of that, she wanted to shoot baskets, so we did that for about another twenty minutes or so.
     By then the Cowboys-Redskins game had kicked off, so the TV was flipped over to that and watched in the living room, once Damon and Clay figured out which channel it was on. Usually we have a betting pool set up on this game, costs about fifty cents to get in, the closest pick to the actual final score takes the pot, but this year, no one could really get into the spirit of the thing. Missing Ken, I think. He was always an enthusiastic supporter of this tradition, seemed like he should be there.
     I got out my guitar, Mike grabbed his, and Trish and Courtney picked up the mandolins, and we played for a couple hours, spirituals and Christmas tunes, mainly, and then just picking around. Louise wanted to jump in, so she got behind the piano and the rest of us trooped into the living room and we played through a couple songs. That was great. We missed Kenny Chesney performing at halftime, and thus an oppurtunity to critique another musical event together before Idol starts, but that's all right, it'll just be January when the reboot lifts off. (Now, how long we can tolerate yet another lame season, we'll see, but...)
    Some more ping pong in the garage, and we headed back to Grandpa's to pick up the boys and eat leftovers.  And that Thanksgiving was over.

     My Black Friday was quite a cultural event - Exploring an art museum and then attending a dance right after.
     Well, it was kinda like this...one of the things you can do for extra credit in English would be to attend something classy, a play or museum or along those lines, and then tell about what you thought of it. So that's how Courtney and I found ourselves trapped in a large mansion filled with centuries-old paintings. (She'd volunteered to come along to keep me company.) We saw some nice landscapes, especially those done by a guy named Thomas Moran, whose work we remembered hearing of vaguely from Antiques Roadshow or History Detectives(Two of my favorite TV shows, btw). Neither of us liked the Impressioist art or African sculpture collection; we enjoyed the modern design collection and aincient civilizations sculpture collection, we could understand those. Indian pottery and handmade baskets captured my attention while boring her to death, same thing with the pop art. By now having completely examined everything available to the public in about an hour and a half, we had two hours or so to go until Dad was back to pick us up. So we re-examined the temporary gingerbread castle contest, and judged all forty-five entries in a style similar to our ratings of AI performances or the latest bizarre college football uniforms. After one round, we kept nine of the forty-five, the only ones to receive a "good" rating, due to such various criteria as imaginative buildings, proper use of tasty decor, realistic side details tucked in the background like Pixar, and overall appearance. We cut about three the second round, including a giant castle/fortress thing made of cookies-and-cream Hershey's and the Roman Coliseum. A library was cut for not being Christmassy enough, as was a campground that had too many colors, and a gingerbread house was reluctantly dropped for oversimplicity, it was too plain. That left either a pretzel-stick log cabin with Fruit Roll-Up tents with people sleeping on gum-stick sleeping bags and a fire roasting a Swedish fish; or a classic gingerbread house in the snow built by a Girl Scout troop that featured a garden hose coiled up in the side yard near the bushes. The Girl Scouts won after we realized that the people were camping in the snow, thereby losing some of their points for not being realistic. Once that was done, we prowled around the gift shop, and then CJ drew her self-portrait. It was an interesting place, but not one that I would have gone to otherwise, and probably won't go to again for a while.
     Then it was time for the square dance!
     This family we know, the Ruscos, they and their neighbors host this square dance with an open invite to everybody, it's a neighborhood tradition or something, kind of a party. Anyway, we were invited, and immediately made plans to attend. Mom wanted to learn how, and Courtney and I couldn't wait to get to dancin' again. Because it's just plain fun! I have now been to dances held: A) In the middle of a field in humid low 90's temp, B) Inside a hot, crowded building that smells like sweat, and C) On a cul-de-sac in the middle of Tulsa in mid 30's temp. In any of those settings, it's a blast. Instant community, much like at a ballgame, one of those shared experiences that can create lasting links in our lives. I knew next to no one; and it was a little odd, knowing my usual partners were a couple states away; but it was a good time, just the same. We did the Virginia Reel(of course, that's practically a requirement for all square dances), which just happens to be my favorite. Also a variation of the Gay Gordon, which was pretty easy, and then a cousin of the box-and-square called Horse and Carriage. There was also a lot of line dancing, which I'm not too good at, and some two-stepping, which I sat out of because I have no clue how to two-step. Talked to Dylan some, he, Paige and the rest of their family was there. Had a great time, it was fun.
    
     Spent time with the dogs, ran a couple loads of laundry, some ping pong thrown in there, too, today; catch with the little brothers, and a lot of hunting for Amy's glasses. It's been one of those days that's just packed. Church in the morning, then heading back to campus for a three-week 15K in bad weather conditions(Or in other words, three weeks until finals, with a ton of material needing to be covered. It's gonna be rough.) Not too many snarky Bedlam-related posts on Facebook today; maybe now that the game's over there will be. Think I'm gonna finish watching the Spider-Man movies tonight.