Thanksgiving in New York

Since we'd just visited my folks in September, this year Anita and I spent turkey day in Albany with her family.

Getting there was stressful, even though we left on Tuesday to beat the crowds. I didn't leave the house early enough, and as a result, we had no margin for error at the airport - if nothing went wrong, we'd make the flight. Unfortunately, Anita got stopped at security twice. Her plastic bag had a snap fastener on it instead of a zip-lock top. Horrors! It was especially ironic since we'd used it before with no problem, but this time she had to get out of line to discard it. I was hoping I could keep the plane there until Anita arrived, but no dice. Now we needed new flights on a holiday weekend. How was that going to happen?

Fortunately, it did. The kindly young lady at the Southwest counter found us two other flights to Albany - and only an hour later than our original itinerary. The catch was that the time between them was only fifteen minutes. We'd have to really hustle if the connection was in another terminal - if we missed the connection, we'd be completely SOL.

The first new flight was at the other end of Oakland airport, but we made that with no problem. It was hard to relax, considering how tight the upcoming connection would be. Happily, providence favored us, and a strong tailwind expanded our fifteen minute margin into a forty-five minute margin. We made it into Albany forty minutes earlier than our original schedule - after leaving an hour later. Do that math - cool!

Aunt Patty picked us up at the airport, since Aunt Kathy had to work a little later than she expected. No matter - we had a nice dinner at the Olive Garden and went to bed. Anita's mom Liz surprised the aunts by showing up unexpectedly!

Wednesday was cooking day. I can't cook anything much more complicated than a hamburger, and generally I've found that cooks seldom want much help in the kitchen anyway. Aunt Kim, Uncle Robbie, Aunt Sue and Uncle Johnny had arrived too, and everybody chipped in here and there, either with food that they'd brought, or with little errands in the kitchen. I stayed out of the way and brought stuff into the house when needed.

As the big day crept closer, things were still pretty low-key. Most of us hung out, watched TV and chatted in the traditional manner while Aunt Kathy cooked herself to a frazzle. I hadn't met Robbie or Kim before, so it was great to find that they were as much fun as the rest of my in-laws. I'm so lucky! Anita's sister Michelle arrived Wednesday night, and Danielle popped in and out as her schedule permitted.

The dinner was great with all the usual suspects - turkey, cranberry sauce (the canned stuff that I love), two kinds of stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy and those little sweet gherkin pickles. Yummy! Danielle's boyfriend Dave joined us as we played bingo, and later, Apples To Apples. Kim brought bagged prizes to discourage gambling, but we played one game of bingo for money anyhow.

The in-laws celebrated Black Friday by doing a little shopping in Troy while Anita and I slept in. We spent the rest of our break catching up, reading and relaxing. We had a quick lunch with Anita's dad (who worked nearby), and dropped in to see his family at their house. Before we knew it, it was time to pack! As always, the trip back was harder (it's never good to have the last leg of your trip be 5+ hours long). It's great to be home!

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PS - I finished three books on the Thanksgiving break - not such a big deal when two were manga, and one was a Mitch Albom novel. Still, I did like Tezuka's "Phoenix: Karma" - the others were just okay.