random thoughts – Day 1,712 – (Saturday) – over indulged

For years, the Saturday before Thanksgiving has been the designated day for the Friendsgiving potluck hosted by my sister and her husband. They rent a hall and everyone brings a dish of some sort and it's the official start to the season of overindulgence and gluttony. We all sit around at tables and eat and chat for a couple hours and it’s fun. We used to be pretty good about taking lots of photos, but lately that hasn’t been the case. 

Today’s pot luck table was loaded with crockpots and casserole dishes and foil baking dishes with pulled pork, bread stuffing with apple and cranberries, butternut squash, meatballs, beef stew, penne with sauce, macaroni salad, shepherd’s pie, tater tot casserole, ham salad finger rolls,  shrimp cocktail, and cold cut subs.

The dessert table was filled with an array of baked goods. There was a German chocolate cake, Oreo trifle, blondies, lots of cookies, and even a light and fluffy pumpkin-cool whip-cream cheese dip with vanilla wafers, graham crackers, ginger snaps and sugar wafers.

There were young people and older folks, all visiting and catching up. My niece and her husband arrived from Las Vegas this morning and it will be great to have them around for Thanksgiving this year. At the table I sat at with some cousins, my aunt, and Dad, some of the talk was about family history on Dad’s side. One of my cousins is a pro at asking great questions and we heard some stories about life when Dad and my aunt were young. 

This year, there was even dancing when my brother-in-law’s band began playing at 4:00. By then, I was three hours into socializing and was all peopled out. It was time to waddle out the door and hit the road to get a jump on the drive before it became dark. 

The ride home bordered on terrible. The volume on routes 2 and 495 was heavy, and everyone entering the road seemed to have no understanding of what the yield sign means. It was a relief to park in the driveway and be done with traffic and driving for the night. 

Haunted by filets.

There were four pieces of mail in the letterbox today, a clear sign the holidays are approaching. Three of them were from one sender – Omaha Steaks. The marketing from that company is nonstop, especially since I sent one gift from them last Christmas. 

There are daily emails which don’t require the sacrifice of any trees and I expected a catalog or two throughout the season, but cripes, three advertising pieces in one day’s mail? It's enough to haunt a house. And after the full day of overeating, the images of filet mignon were more than a bit too much. It turned my stomach inside out a little bit. There will be no contemplation of meat gifts for Christmas tonight.