You know what I’m saying.  That let – down that occurs after the holidays when reality sets back in and life has to go back to normal.  It’s worst after Christmas, being that there’s an entire “season” that springs into being and seems to take over everything.  Life seems so festive for awhile and then “bam”!  Before you know it, your living room is a sea of shredded wrapping paper, your family’s gone home and all youhave to look forward to is cleaning up a ridiculous amount of ornamentation.

Today I am not talking about that type of post – holiday malaise however; today I am talking about the lesser “Thanksgiving is over and now you only have 28 shopping days until Christmas” malaise.  Turkey Day seems to have far less build up to it, though it is no less anticipated to a lot of people.  BUt like the frenzied early morning unwrapping, it too fizzles out in no time.  Case in point: we spent weeks planning the meal, an entire day preparing and stressing over it, and in mere minutes it was demolished.  It was excellent, it was worth it, but it is gone!  And sadly, like the limited leftovers from such a delicious meal, the relatives have vanished as well.

This year it was my family that came and enjoyed the big meal with us.  I haven’t had much opportunity to spend a lot of time with my family since I got married, so this was a special time for me.  I hope it becomes a habit.  But like I was saying, it came and went too quickly and now I am left hoping that the next holiday will be just as happy.

We had two turkeys.  My uncle is all about the deep fried turkey, and I m glad he is.  If you haven’t tried it, you’re missing out.

Dad came over early to prepare the other turkey for roasting.  It’s a great thing when you open your home to your family and they come cook for you.  Of course you wonder what it says about your cooking.

The girls trotted out just about every game set we have to keep busy.  Dominoes have always been their favorite, but they learned a new one this holiday: “spoons”.  Now they’ve been begging every night toplay this very fun card game.

“Bucket – O – Baby”.

Oona warmed up to everyone eventually, though she stayed aloof enough to keep everyone wanting more.

I cut Neve’s hair the night before.

My grandmother was the master chef at the hotel, so it’s hard to keep her out of the kitchen! (not that you’d want, to, either!)

Hot oil!

It was a fairly nice day – in the 50’s and sunny.  This meant I was able to get some good pictures of family outside watching the turkey fry.

Teen angst at its best.

There’s always that moment after the holiday when you are unloading your camera onto your computer and you discover that your 5 year old got her hands on the camera at some point.

A much better picture of Neve.

My uncle and grandmother very graciously gave into Neve’s demands to sit at the kids’ table.

Just prior to total meal demolition.

And now it is time for me to tackle the tree.  I spent all Sunday putting the stupid thing together (it had been wrongly taken apart last year and had to be completely re-wired this year as a result.  I had voted for buying a new tree, but was smacked down by the veto holder).  My hands were scratched up and bleeding by the end, but it got done anyway.  Of course this morning an entire section of lights had burnt out again……….next year I am getting a real tree, darn it!

Hope all of your holidays were as pleasant as mine, and hopefully there will be knitting content soon!