EUROPE & DC '23 • Day 3: Washington DC

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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SEPTEMBER THANKSGIVING 2023

The older I get, the less I like being pinned down to rigid dates on the calendar. Holidays especially force all of us into the same travels dates as everyone else. School years put everyone's vacation at the same time. Don't get me wrong here, I love the activities that go on these scheduled dates, but hate how every year's calendar gets carved up with only certain dates available to plan things. I mentioned at the start of this trip's blog, we have started picking arbitrary dates to celebrate Thanksgiving together. This year we are particularly early to accommodate Sarah starting grad school in October, and our good friend Toña leaving France in September to live in Jakarta for a while. It's so difficult with multiple families to coordinate on the actual November date, especially when our girls live on the east coast and the UK. Hopefully next year we can get closer to a Canadian Thanksgiving time frame in October !

Turkey and all the fixins

So today we spent a pretty typical Thanksgiving day for our family; cooking, cleaning and playing games. When I was a kid, the family game tradition was to play Password after dinner. It was my Mom's favorite. I actually had to explain the rules to the girls, but Sarah mostly perked up when I said Betty White used to be a regular on the show!

It's a lot less chaotic with only 5 of us, but so great to just spend some family time with Sarah, Danielle & Nick. Before you know it, they'll be back in California at Christmas time.

It was almost difficult to get turkey in September, but everything else was no problem. Cranberry Sauce, Sweet Potatoes, Stuffing, Pumpkin Pie.....! Nick as usual did a great job with the turkey and Danielle's pumpkin pie was perfect.

Games for the day: Terraforming Mars and Carcassonne ( a new one for us). Nope, Password is no longer the family holiday game.