I am most pleased to say that Thanksgiving Dinner was a tremendous success. And that fun was had by all, and that the first holiday between Amras and I has come and gone with barely a ripple of discontent. We did it! And I actually have to say we had a blast doing it, a few little bumps while we figured out each others traditions and how they blend (“you make cranberry sauce from scratch?” “You put marshmallows on your yams??”) and a few forgotten ingredients (“damn, are you going to the store? Could you pick up whip cream?” “hold on, I have to go and collect some acorns for the centerpiece”)
We even made a proper jack-o-lantern which is – as far as I know – still burning merrily on our coffee table. Messy, slimey, but a lot of fun to make all around. A tradition I lost a long time ago, that I’m glad to pick up again.
And my pumpkin pie (er, not made from a fresh pumpkin I’m afraid)? Turned out so well that even my Mum says that she thought it was excellent. And for me? That is the ultimate compliment. I will most definitely be keeping that recipe for future occasions!
The days following thanksgiving were spent mostly curled up on the chesterfield eating leftovers and watching Netflix, playing Words with Friends, and tackling at least one “mystery” puzzle (which we still haven’t finished and may yet give up on) and ferrying me back and forth to my various day shifts.
In short: normal, for a few short weeks I truly enjoyed our odd little version of normal.
I only had one shift at Ghostly Walks just before I left, one Halloween tour – for which I went through training shifts and actually went so far as to write crib notes! But I did manage to do a fairly good job of it (and there was a golden retriever with my group! Double bonus! Though the poor puppy was a bit unsettled by our offices.) As for my other job, well, the store will trip along very nicely without me I’m sure, but I will miss them while I’m away. I may not always love working retail, but in a lot of ways it’s very comforting, I’ve been with the store for over 15 years on and off at this point, and we’ve become something of an odd little family there. It’s nice to know I have somewhere to come back to that will understand the craziness that is my life just at the moment…
Speaking of that craziness, and the reams of red tape, I’m not sure how much I want to go into here, but there has been definite progress for the better. Which is, needless to say, a big weight off of a lot of shoulders.
And all of that is behind me for a bit as now it’s off I go into the big great blue again. Only a short run this time, two months in Mexico and then – thankfully – home for Christmas.
And I can’t say, how much it means to me that I have people – a person – to come home to for the holidays.