Thursday, November 28, 2002

the hostess directs as she and her eldest daughter consider one of the three birds on offer

the jigsaw puzzle...an honored tradition

Dad looking preppy in his cheap Target sweater

finishing touches

cousins

most of the group of turkey consumers

"Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, but that the dead are living."

Chesterton

FFP awakened me in the wee hours to say that something was wrong with his email. I begged for sleep. But when I got up, I hustled around and fixed that problem and another thing that had cropped up.

Dad was here early, as predicted. When I came down from Forrest's office, he was sitting in the living room looking at the paper. We packed up, I quizzed him as to whether he had everything and we were off.

We saw nine officers of the law, three or four giving tickets. But traffic wasn't too bad. At the city of West, exit 353 on IH35, we stopped at The Czech Stop and had a bathroom break. Then, in a matter of sacred family tradition, we bought some sausage rolls and a pound cake and I got a coffee fill-up. I drove on in to the Park Cities, an enclave in Dallas, where my cousin lives. I got my spinach casserole out of the ice chest and turned it over for reheating. I get out the wine and hustle a corkscrew and open a white and a red. Then I watched the kids starting on a jigsaw puzzle (of the Dallas skyline) and meet and greet. Besides the Ball clan members there are some of my cousin's relatives from the other side, some of his wife's relatives and in the 'spirit of the season' some folks who aren't family but need a place to land for a big Thanksgiving dinner. There are twenty-four people. Yep. And in spite of the fancy neighborhood, it isn't that big a house!

There is lots of food and we finally dig in. And go back for seconds. All that. I don't actually eat all that much. I do sip a bit of wine.

I help tackle the dishes after. First, I triage the sink, getting dishes and garbage out of it and scraping and rinsing. My cousin Bob puts some in the dishwasher and then I start washing with another cousin drying. I contribute a bit in the battle against chaos.

Dad and I go to the nearby hotel and check in and then seven of us 'younger' folks (youngest 15 and oldest, um, me) go to see the new Harry Potter movie. We started this tradition when some of the entourage were small. But they still like it so we do it even though we have no kids, just teenagers and adults who are young at heart.

Back at my cousin's we work on our jigsaw puzzle, talk, take pictures of each other, the usual. People drift away. Finally we do, too. I had a piece of cherry pie for dinner, nothing else. I'm feeling hungry when I get back to the hotel but I figure that will make me hungry for the breakfast my cousin has promised us in the morning. I sleep fitfully, trying to watch TV or read.

JUST TYPING
Traditions.
Evolve.
We hope that they hold us together.
Without binding and chafing.