29 November 2013

NaBloPoMo Fail



Blame the Thanksgiving food coma, and the long car ride home, and the multiple glasses of wine.  Blame the kids, just because that's always a good strategy.  Blame my husband, who didn't keep me from crashing on my pillows fully clothed last night.  Blame my two comfy pillows.

This is me, right after we arrived home from my sister-in-law's, just under 2 hours away, where we enjoyed an epic feast and tons of running-with-cousins time:

"I'll just lie here for a minute, until the bathroom is free, and 
then after I use the bathroom, I'll blog…"

<. . . a few minutes later . . . >

"ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……"

And just like that.  My dreams of NaBloPoMo glory: all dashed.  No post for November 28, 2013.  So, so close to the finish line.  Thwarted by wine and children.  (Actually, maybe that could be the title for my memoirs!)

Since Thanksgiving proved to be my NaBloPoMo downfall, I feel the need to look back on the day and salvage it somehow.  Here, then, are 7 Reasons Why Thanksgiving Still Rocked, Even Though I Failed NaBloPoMo On That Day.

1.  Because I read this clip from The Colbert Report, and it made me laugh:
"It's time to gear up for Thanksgiving. I love it all. The food, the family, the laughing, the drinking, the 'No wonder your wife left you, Margaret,' the 'That's not the proper word for Asians, Nana,' the 'Everybody help clean up Mom's locked herself in the laundry room with a bottle of Chardonnay.' It's a special time."
2.  Because of baby cousins!

A 4 month old baby WHO IS NOT MINE fell asleep on my lap after dinner last night, and I got to snuggle with him, and love him, and kiss him, and all the good baby-stuff, and I didn't have to think about changing him, feeding him, or pacifying him, didn't have to worry about when he might sleep, what he should eat, or who he might spit up on, and DID get to hand him back to his mommy right when he woke up.

3.  Because of family.

Baby cousins are definitely the cutest, but seeing family of all ages, who we don't get to see nearly enough, was just plain great.  Watching all the kids, ranging in age from 3 to 15, run around together, and listening to the entirely predictable but completely wonderful exclamations from adults about how much all the kids have grown, commiserating with my niece who has a child a lot like Little T, and listening to Grandma tell my kids stories about their dad when he was little…all of it was priceless.

4.  Because of my youngest kid, who cracked us up on the drive to my sister-in-law's house:

Little T was in the way back of our Volvo station wagon, and apparently it was  a little hot back there.  Here is just one of the Little T gems that wafted up to us from the back of the car: "I'm dyin' back here!  You're gonna get there and have a little 7 year old dead body to deal with!  Water!  I need water!!"

5.  Because of family conversations.

A few blocks from our destination, Rick and I geared up for the "rules of good behavior" lecture.  Here's how it went:

Me: "OK, kids, who wants to tell us what the rules are going to be for today?"

Cenzo: "Don't act like ourselves?"

Lola: "Blah, blah, blah, be good, blah blah…"

Sam: "Pretend we like each other.  That's it.  OK, everyone, let's pretend to like each other."

Little T: "I love you, Sam.  That's a great hat!"

Mom and Dad: "Right.  Don't act like yourselves, pretend to like each other, and say please and thank you.  That covers it!"

6.  Because seriously?  The turkey.

My brother-in-law made the most delicious turkey I have ever tasted in my entire life.  It was so moist and juicy!  He used an electric roasting pan, like I've used for mine when we've hosted, but he made that thing sing, and he has now set the turkey bar extremely high.  Henceforth, all turkeys shall be judged against the 2013 Turkey That Changed Forever The Way I Think About Turkey.

It was that good.  It was that worth being so triptofanned-out that I slept through the last few hours of the day, when I should have been blogging.

7.  Because of PIE!

I may not have written a blog post yesterday, but I woke up to pie.  For breakfast, I had a heaping slice of pumpkin pie, covered in whipped cream, and suddenly, NaBloPoMo seemed just a little less important.  Further proof that:



I don't have NaBloPoMo bragging rights, but I have pie, so I think I win.

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