Tuesday, November 21, 2006

An Update (Finally. Not That I Have Anything of Note to Say)

Work is crazy. I’m huge. Akutaq is doing Tae Bo* all the damn time.

Bump and I are staying put for the holidays. Several years ago, we instituted the Christmas rotation - Minnesota, then Maine, then DC - and refused to travel for Thanksgiving (except for that time we went to Turkey, because, duh, when else would you go to Turkey?). The first year we Thanksgivinged in place we told both families we weren’t coming home, but they were welcome to come to DC. They all took us up on the offer, and Bump made Thanksgiving dinner for 14 people in our tiny apartment.

The next year, we told them we weren’t coming home, but left out the part about them being welcome to come to DC.

We don’t really have our own traditions yet. Bump’s local relatives always invite us to join them for Thanksgiving, and sometimes we do. When I was pregnant with Lumpyhead, Bump and I had a quiet dinner alone, and afterward we cautiously rejoiced when I didn’t throw up. Certainly the best DC Thanksgivings were “Orphan Thanksgivings.” Because the travel window for Thanksgiving is short and there are so many Hill staffers on small budgets, Washington is full of Thanksgiving Orphans. Someone would organize a potluck meal attended by a random assortment of people our age, with lots of wine, some football, and a predictable descent into drinking games.

No one there longed for their families, or if they did, they didn’t show it. In our view, the people celebrating Thanksgiving with their families were the suckers stuck sitting across from Crazy Aunt Gladys who spits when she talks. We were playing Tic-Tac-Beer with the cute intern and still got to eat turkey.

Remembering those holidays makes me miss gatherings of distant friends: those people in your address book you rarely see but who always make you say “we really should get together with them more often” on the way home. It seems we barely have time to get together with our close friends now, and I’m unwilling to substitute my limited time with Lumpyhead for a few hours with cordial acquaintances.

Thanksgiving will just be the three of us this year. Bump is planning the menu and timing it around Lumpyhead’s nap. Someday I’ll teach Lumpyhead and his sister the rules of Tic-Tac-Beer, and who knows, maybe it will become part of our family tradition.

*Honestly, could that guy be any scarier? [shudder]

5 comments:

Daddy L said...

Billy Blanks is getting a muffin top I see. He should know that you can photoshop that sort of thing out.

Anonymous said...

We had some wonderful Orphan Thanksgivings when Jeromy was in the Air Force, which were eerily similar to the ones you describe in DC. Usually there was only one pie instead of a dozen different desserts - but you could bet the liquor cabinet would be stocked and the keg would be floating before dark.

daddy in a strange land said...

Have a good, restful holiday, all four of you. :)

Beth Fish said...

Tic-Tac-Beer? Is that anything like Hangman Shots?

Gidge Uriza said...

NEVER BLASPHEME BILLY BLANKS.

HE IS MY LORD AND MASTER.