you can't take the sky from me.

Thanksgiving was fab-u-lous. Made a brocolli casserole that was the least healthy vegetable dish since pizza - a Paula Deen recipe that included eggs, a cup of mayonaise, cheese, Ritz crackers, and Cream of Celery soup - but went over well. We got there around noon, and I hung out with my dad and my brother, drinking wine and chatting. I don't have a large immediate family, nor do I live particularly far from my folks and my brother, but it's grown increasingly rare that I'm ableto get my entire family together at once, much less have them all focused on one another. Joce and Steve didn't make it until after dinner - which was fantastic, as usual - but when they arrived, we all hung out, played games, drank yet more wine (my sister and I lean toward the lush side) and made inappropriate jokes, much to my mother's chagrin. It was a lot of fun; Andy and I stuck around to watch a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (which I enjoy just as much now as I did when I was a kid) and Andy and I left around 9.

Yesterday, we hung out at Camelot for "Pie Day," which was slightly quieter than Andy and I had anticipated, but did, as promised, have pie. We played several rounds of Argugraph (the game that Andy designed) with Piper and various other Camelot residents, a few rounds of Dominion, and several hands of Apples to Apples with Jay (my father-in-law) and Josiah. Playing Apples to Apples with my brother- and sister-in-law is an experience because neither of them ever know who any of the "people cards" are, and as a result, will either play them at inapproriate times, or totally disregard completely relevant ones on their judging turn because they have no clue who they are. It's really amusing, though my mind reels at the gaps in Piper's knowledge (Josiah is 10, so there's so reason there, but Piper's edging in on 16 and her lack of recognition of some names just boggles the mind). It was fun, though there was little to no traditional "dinner" food available, so afterwards we stopped at Cafe Azteca, which was, of course, quite yummy.

Today was tree day - woot! We shopped around at The Salvation Army for decorations earlier, but only found one (a cute candle holder), and put up the tree. The apartment does look kind of lacking in the decorations department, but I guess that's natural for the first Christmas living on one's own. We'll have to splurge on the after Christmas sales so we can glitz up the place next Christmas.

Tomorrow is the TSO show at the Garden - psyched. Happy that the month is almost over, glad that December is going to be an interesting month with plenty to do (including, likely, another parent meeting that I'm not exactly dreading, but I'm not looking forward to, either). Still - Slutcracker, Yule Ball, Christmas party, Christmas itself, New Year's Party, etc. And two weeks (eh, slightly less, siiigh) off of work.

Tonight, more Frasier, more lounging, more existential career angsting (but that's another story). Hope everyone's holiday weekend has been pleasant, enjoy the rest of it ♥ ♥ ♥