let the holidays begin

My loyal fan is disappointed because I have not blogged in so long so I dedicate this essay to him. Vacation is over and here I come!
Next week is the 24th annual family Thanksgiving gathering at my Uncle's garage. Perhaps I am a little conceited, but I like to believe Uncle built that garage just for these little soirees. This year we expect all 16 of my Mother's branch of the family [Uncle recognizes her as his beloved little sister, in spite of the incident with his bicycle and the blue paint...] and at least 16 from the other siblings' families.
The garage has room for several tables and includes a furnace and stove, and a bathroom with a light outside the door, to alert everyone, in case they didn't notice you sneaking in there. We were all relieved to see the furnace replace the woodstove-we were wearing our lightest summer clothing in order to avoid baking ourselves, and Uncle had a habit of feeding books into the stove with the wood-granted they were Condensed Reader's Digests that NO ONE would take from him, but I cringed. Not that I was willing to take home more than a box or two myself.
One thing I greatly miss is the annual slide show-Uncle installed a screen for that purpose on one end of the garage. I could watch that for hours-me in my new Easter dress, me coming home from the hospital in the brand new Studebaker, me playing with my only cousin at that time...I was just soooo sweet. Some silly people got tired of this entertainment. Hey it wasn't my fault that the next birth after me was 3 cousins in rapid succession and things just got too hectic for anyone to film the events...or perhaps my younger cousins and siblings just weren't as photogenic as I. I certainly was a hard act to follow.
Well, I will write more about our Thanksgiving gathering later. Much to do following my little break.