in a nutshell

I had a really lovely Thanksgiving, save for two things: People were getting shot up/taken hostage in the motherland (all of my family in Mumbai is safe, thank God, but my aunt used to work right near that Taj Mahal Hotel and often went to Leopold Cafe for lunch); and my brother wasn't able to make it home for turkey.* My parents and I got kind of teary during the Saying of Thanks right before we ate, and his little ears must have been burning for the last two days because it just wasn't the same without him.

On the other hand, we were keeping H away from his family, too. But we were glad to have him. In fact, he and my dad spent the better part of Turkey Day and Black Friday playing Guitar Hero on my parents' new Wii. They were having so much fun that we decided to stay over; besides, there were way better deals to be had out there in suburbia where we have access to a car.

I especially missed my brother when we woke up at 6 a.m. to go shopping. Unlike last year, when the kid and I braved frostbite by sitting outside in 12-degree weather from midnight until 5 a.m., this year it was like 35 degrees at 7, and while the car was all frosty, it was nowhere near as cold. Plus H was pretty quick to determine an out-of-the-way spot to go where there would likely be far less competition for merchandise that we really wanted to get.

Sure enough, we parked right in front of the store and walked in 10 minutes after it opened, and the staff went and retrieved all of the items we were looking for! There were two people in line in front of us, and we walked out with a spring in our step and in great moods to tackle the rest of the things on our list. I would specify but a) I don't want to give away the location of the magical store and b) I don't want to spoil the surprise for any of my readers who might be receiving some of the stuff we bought in a few weeks.

My mom and her friend had hit the shops at 4 a.m. and we met up with her at the local hardware store, which was BUMPING. We got some great deals, including a really sweet television console for my dad's birthday (they had been using a pretty genius contraption made of tv tray tables that totally didn't look as arts-and-crafts until you lifted the cover, but there's no reason they couldn't have a nice TV stand). I think he was pretty pleased.

H, my mom and I went to a couple more stores, went out to breakfast spent the day setting up the console and TV systems (looks GORGEOUS now) and everyone was happy. Personally, I never like leaving my parents house, and I think H was having a pretty good time, too, so we just got home at 11:40, packing lots of leftover turkey and houseware stuff my mom bought for us that we don't have room in the kitchen to store--with just barely enough time to post.

Like hell I was going to screw up this NabloPomo thing on the second to last day!


p.s. The Thanksgiving meal was DELICOUS. My mom, of course, made too much food. And while she couldn't find key limes anywhere, she did go to several places and found H some of his favorite pie. And H impressed everyone with his mom's stuffing recipe. I got off really easy and barely had to do a few dishes. Pretty good day.

*Actually, he doesn't even like turkey. My mom always made him a steak or something separate for Thanksgiving.