NOM

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving week and survived the holidays. The Ryder family played host this year and had a good time visiting with a lot of family in town.

Here's a summary of events.

A fun discussion ensued regarding hosting accommodations at an aunt and uncles house when two visiting adults are in a relationship but NOT married. Apparently a marriage allows for one bed/bedroom while no marriage means two guest bedrooms are needed. This discussions quickly devolved into what a hassle and disruption it is for aunt and uncle to provide two guest rooms. I loudly proclaimed that anyone could stay at my house if needed but that everyone would be subject to available floor space because the spare bedrooms were already full of guests. I did qualify they were married guests with a nod and a wink.

Thanksgiving day brought lots of food, fun, and a lesbian to the table. An extended family member I don't know very well brought her girlfriend to dinner. She was introduced to the family as the girlfriend which caused a mixed response. The Ryders were welcoming, polite, and inquisitive with the youngest asking the lesbian how they met. He followed up with "Are you two going to get married?" At that point the Uncle mentioned above, excused himself to help in the kitchen. He never made it to the dinner table, offering to help serve the little kids while pretending to play butler to avoid the whole situation. I leaned over and whispered into Sister Ryder's ear, "I think your uncle believes it's contagious. He's keeping his distance!"

On Sunday I offered to be the Uber driver for the out of towner's who had to get to the airport. It was an easy decision as they had to be to the airport about the time sacrament meeting was starting. They offered to go early so that I wouldn't miss SM, but I insisted that I was ok with the conflict of time. After dropping them off, I found a Starbucks and spent some time sipping the warm delicious devils juice.

The holidays usually drive me crazy and this year was no different. Yet I'm grateful and must give thanks that the world is going to be alright!

I was actually disappointed with the level of non-engagement over the holidays. But my lesbian daughter took her fiancee and spent her holiday with some cousins who could not travel due to work. There was not nearly as much political talk as I suspected either. I had to content myself with copious amounts of great food and mostly polite conversation.

We survived beautifully because our family is so spread out that we don't gather for holidays. When the kids were little we'd occasionally travel for Christmas, but no one ever comes to our house because we're the only ones in Utah and dangit, it snows there!

So I had a wonderful time with my three nearly-grown-up children and DH. Occasionally we'd drift into a weird and/or gross topic (my daughter is a science major so there's lots of opportunity for that) and someone would say "Maybe we should talk about politics!". Which always gets a giggle because we all think the same things politically.

No alcohol, even though our kids are cool with it and even imbibe themselves sometimes (including the 17-year-old). We all love Martinelli's and that's traditional.

Gathering with extended family at Thanksgiving would be a special kind of hell for me so I'm very glad we don't do it.

Korihor Returning to report.

First, I must admit that overall it was a nice thanksgiving holiday. Laughs were had, food was eaten, little cousins played.

The Korihor Family went to Las Vegas for the holiday. This year is Thanksgiving with my wife's family and Christmas with mine, then alternate next year. All of my wife's siblings are married. SILvegas is the youngest and lives in Las Vegas where his family is from. Several months ago, plans were being made about where to go for Thanksgiving. SILvegas was in angst because she felt the family wasn't playing fair and avoided going to Vegas. SILvegas really wanted to to play susie homemaker. She had a pity party and eventually my MIL caved decided we're all going to Vegas for thanksgiving.

Here's the interesting part, everyone is going to Vegas, but no one wants to. Not even BIL who lives in Vegas. He doesn't want us in his house. I tried getting a hotel or AirBNB, but I was overruled and everyone was staying at SILvegas house. 16 people in a 3 bedroom 1900 sqft house. It was a little tight.

Since there wouldn't be enough room for a dinner table to hold us all, the plan was to eat dinner in the backyard. Being Vegas, the idea was the weather would be nice/warm enough for an outdoor event. It wasn't.
Now it get interesting. BILvegas lives near his parents house. It's only a 5 minute drive. His parents house isn't extremely large, but its a nice home and has a more space and so a decision was made to have thanksgiving dinner there. EVERYONE IS NOT PLEASED. We are supposed to have thanksgiving dinner with the my wifes side of the the family. My MIL is excited to have her family together. So what is the result? She is having thanksgiving dinner at the parents of her son-in law. She isn't doing any cooking, anything to help with HER family's thanksgiving dinner besides sit on the patio and hold a baby. The rest of us get to enjoy thanksgiving dinner at the house of our BIL's parents. We end up spending the day with the other side of the family. WEIRD.

Knowing that tensions would be high before evening driving to Vegas, I told BILutah that we would spent some time together. BILutah was very much not happy at the final plans of cramped sleeping arrangements and other family dining plans. When we arrived at the BIL's parents house - BILutah and I left for the store, bought a couple fermented wheat beverages and enjoyed them across the street and out of sight from the rest of the family. That relieved some tension.

After dinner, we return to the house of SILvegas. But BILvegas isn't there because Black Friday starts Thursday evening. BILvegas lives for Black Friday. It's bittersweet he's gone. We all talk and recover from turkey coma's. BILvegas returns and then goes to bed to wake up early for the real Black Friday shopping. Apparrently he need more junk and apple watch's.

BILutah and I start our masterplan. At 10:00, we call an Uber ride and go to Freemont street in downtown Vegas. We play penny slots and roulette. We walk freemont street and stare at the various street performers. 2 performers happen to only be wearing a thong and pasties, so we stare a little longer. We get several drinks from the cocktail waitresses. I had about 5-6 adult beverages. We laugh and have a good time. Return home around 2;00 am. This was the best part of the trip.

On friday, the womenfolk go to a LuLuLaRoe (?) clothing party. I dunno, it was girl time. Then we all go to see Moana at the movie theatre as big group family. After the movie, BILutah heads back to Salt Lake with his family. We go back to the house. Apparently they missed some stuff at the LuLuLaRoe party so the womenfolk all go back for 2.5 hours while BILvegas and I watch the kids. Womenfolk return, we watch TV and everyone seems to retire about 8:30.

I stay up and I engage my MIL about church. I'll post about our conversation in another thread, but we had a lively talk about 1990 temple changes, my FIL was Ex'd in his early 20's, and I tell my MIL that Brigham Young is similar to Hitler. That pushed her over the top and we gotta stop talking.

Saturday - we wake up, clean up and drive back to Phoenix. Sunday, we sleep in. Mrs Korihor goes to RS by herself and the rest of us stay home. Sunday night we get out christmas decorations I spent 3 hours fixing the damn Christmas tree lights.

We spent it with the in-laws who are mostly nevermos, but I did get pulled into a discussion between one of them and the only other Mormon (besides Mrs. Hagoth) about whether the Garden of Eden is in Mesopotaimia or Missouri. My answer in summary: "all I know is that we all have Neanderthal DNA in our genomes, which throws a wrench in either theory."

We recently moved from our large house near family to a small summer house two hours away. Then we have the winter small house five hours away. We were pretty exhausted from a DIYS move from a big house we have been in 25 years to the smaller summer house and have been vegging at the winter home after leaving the summer home partway moved in, but not unpacked. The kids want to do the snowy Christmas in the Idaho summer home, yikes, we have to dig the kitchen out from the boxes, and figure out entertainment for grandchildren, some of whom are creep-agers. Pretty soon we have to go back up north to find the floor of the summer home. So, for Thandsgiving we decided to do very little. No guests, minimal but traditional feast, and quiet. We thought about going to an all you can eat pig out in Las Vegas, or out to eat with friends or having friends over and decided on quiet. So, for the first time in 45 years it was just us with no extended family or friends. Awwwwww.

We have Sinterklaas, no thanksgiving.
New citizens think it's racist and are ruining a centuries old tradition

http://www.utnieuws.nl/nieuws/59353/Wha ... warte_Piet

Didn't have a Thanksgiving this year. Last Wednesday my Dad had a blockage in his lung and died but they brought him right back... so thanksgiving was being thankful he was alive and promising him he wouldn't have to live on a ventilator forever (he's off of it now). No loss.. too many holidays in this country anyway.
I was hoping to share a NED with you all and he said he had one but he can't remember it after coming off sedation... bummer. I have to go back home this week no matter what which stinks. We haven't made any real progress in his health but I'm grateful to be able to be here with him. Early on he said something like you had a good childhood right? And I changed the subject but at this point my heart is "softened" as they like to say and I can even kiss his forehead now. I just want him either better or it to be over for him but that's out of my hands.
He's sleeping right now for the first time in days so I thought I'd kill some time checking in on you crazies
My grandma is funny. Everyone is measured by member or not member...bless her 88 year old heart. I was smart to not spill any beans. Good to see family and good to be reminded why I don't live near them haha.

Meilingkie wrote:We have Sinterklaas, no thanksgiving.
New citizens think it's racist and are ruining a centuries old tradition

http://www.utnieuws.nl/nieuws/59353/Wha ... warte_Piet

Haha! This made me laugh. I have a Dutch in-law who has attempted to defend Black Pete for years. Sorry but the verdict of everyone he has tried to convince on this side of the pond is:

We had a mostly quiet Thanksgiving at our house with just one sibling and their family. They're still totally TBM. We're still totally not. Wasn't really a topic of conversation at all.

Closest hit: SIL was discussing another family member who came out of the closet and got a divorce. Apparently that family member's ex is getting remarried and moving to another state, so the youngest child will be moving in with the gay parents. "Everyone's all concerned about it." Me: "Really? They're all concerned about child living with their mom?? Why? They lived with her for the first 14 years of their life?" Subject dropped. Conversation returns to cooking and home remodeling. Oh, and i think they may have spotted the Mike's lemonade that's been in our fridge for at least the last 6 months, but no one said anything.

Overall it was a nice time. The kids had a lot of fun, and I think that's the most important thing. I made a promise to myself that if the conversation turned to politics or religion, I would take a walk. Unfortunately, it was quite stormy, so I ended up pretending to sleep on the couch. Politics never came up.

Some interesting talking points:

It's okay to watch real war footage that's rated R because it's real. Watching simulated/pretend violence that is rated R is wrong.

Even though Deseret Book is bad, we don't want to talk about that in front of the children, it might harm them somehow.

Ward Christmas parties are not supposed to be fun. They are supposed to be about Christ.

My holiday was great. Even finished up the Christmas shopping Sunday night.

The worst part was 5:00 AM Monday morning when my alarm goes off for the first time in 4 days.

'Twas lovely. Utah family got together the Saturday before Thanksgiving, went to a restaurant and then back to daughter's house for lots of assorted pies and kids' games and sorting through old Christmas decorations.

The following Tuesday, hubby and I drove to Oregon to spend the actual holiday with our youngest who is living there to work, establish residency, and get away from Utah and the snow. We cooked a turkey, stuffing, mashed taters, gravy, beans, cranberry sauce, candied yams, and pumpkin pie. All of the roomies living in the house were happy with the rare feast (skinny, poor, working students, all of 'em) and the boys surrendered the TV remote so we could switch from football to the National Dog Show.

We spent three days enjoying the rainy greenness of Eugene, finding a couple of excellent restaurants with local microbrews and visiting dog parks to let the pup run in the mud. I love the Pacific Northwest.

Alas, on Saturday we had to make the trip back to Utah and a gathering snow. It was a good break, though

Meilingkie wrote:We have Sinterklaas, no thanksgiving.
New citizens think it's racist and are ruining a centuries old tradition

http://www.utnieuws.nl/nieuws/59353/Wha ... warte_Piet

A bit more information on Sinterklass horse, Amerigo. Few know that the horse's full name was Amerigo Vespucci and he was sired in Italy. Feeling his oats, he began to wander and gained local fame as an explorer. Later on, he teamed up with St. Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra.


As to where anyone got the idea that Zwarte Piet is a racist symbol, who knows?

American Thanksgiving is based upon eating a lot and football (not that foot-soccer, but the real stuff from that NFL video game).