For most of my adult life, I've gotten up early on Thanksgiving morning, to start a turkey by dawn, following my grandmother's example. I didn't know any other way to behave. It was programmed in me at birth. At my own house we rarely worked ahead on any food items except pies, so to have a feast ready to go by early afternoon, hard work started early that morning. Since I moved back in close proximity to family, I haven't needed to make every single dish myself, and it feels almost decadent to make one or two things and call it a day. Tomorrow, I still have to get up early, because what I'm making will take time to cook, but my workload seems deceptively light. Even if I do all of the things I have on my schedule, it's just baking cookies (the dough for which has been chilling in the fridge, and we have already test baked a handful, and approved them), green bean casserole (homemade sauce and fried onions to keep everything wheat-free), and maybe a set of yeasty dinner rolls for friendsgiving in the evening. I'll have such a small workload, I might even be able to catch some of the parade and dog show. I won't know what to do with myself.
Rather than cooking ahead of time, since it is practically pre-ordained that I would never do such a wise thing, my daughters and I got out and drove around town. The roads were horrible. Beyond horrible. But even with the early going-home traffic this afternoon, it wasn't that bad if one stayed on main roads. We saw a lot of folks who underestimated how well their low-slung sedans were going to muscle through knee-high snowplow slush blocking driveways and alleys. I knew better than to attempt any of that.
Instead of our regular Wednesday night game, we took it next door and swapped out a few participants. Some regular members were missing to visit family, and others were here visiting us. We played board games and video games, including a dice game we used to play compulsively back in college called Cosmic Wimpout. We started out with Donner Dinner Party, and all three rounds I was one of the two cannibals who had to try to stay disguised in order wipe out the party before they could be rescued. All three rounds no one was sure enough about my role to vote me out. So technically I won all three rounds. It was literally exhausting to me to carry on the deception, but I kept getting dealt the same role card. It was my destiny to be the evil cannibal. It seems to be a theme this quarter.
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