a very bear-y Bearenstein Bears Thanksgiving

I'm pretty much stoked for tomorrow because IT'S THANKSGIVING! and WE GET TO STAY HOME AND HAVE SOME RARE FAMILY TIME!

We're on the 2 Thanksgiving schedule--one on my side and one on Ben's side.  Yay for that small number with our 2 fairly small families.  Case in point: 12 plates needed on my side, 9 on Ben's.  I know that there are people who love their big, boisterous families, but I'm pretty groovy with our small, semi-boisterous affairs.  Christmas time gets bigger and crazier, so Thanksgiving is perfect for some good chillaxing with our closest family peeps.

So far, my favorite moment so far happened at my parents' house where there is cable tv (we no longer keep up with the Joneses on that front).  I had a sweet little moment where one child was asleep, we were all in that happy, groovy, post-lunch place, the family room was vacant, and I had an opportunity.  Newspaper.  Couch.  HGtv/Food Network.  Allll mine.  Lovely.  And then my mini-me and one-and-only nephew showed up simultaneously, desperately working on me to find some sort of gibberishy Disney/Nick Jr. stuff.  I can still confuzzle my own kid, but my whipper snapper nephew can read the guide on the tv; he had me figured out pretty quickly.  Holidays with family--nary a dull moment.

Tomorrow, I want to have a new favorite Thanksgiving 2012 memory because for the first time since we've been married, we are going to be home with no familial obligations on Thanksgiving.  I, for one, am totally, totally (totally) looking forward to it.  And we're going to eschew the Hallmark Thanksgiving crowd in favor of the Cox Thanksgiving in-group.  (I feel that I would be ridiculed for what I am about to say should someone in my immediate family read this.  I'm not exactly "the same" as the rest of them.  I get made fun of/laughed at/ridiculed a lot.  I'm also the youngest.)  We are going to have salmon (wild caught, of course), not turkey.  We'll also have apple turnovers (with puff pastry, of course), not pie.  And we're going to not watch a) football (though we have no specific aversion to this...quite the contrary!), b) the Macy's day parade, or c) Charlie Brown.  Even better, we're not doing a single speck of shopping tomorrow, Friday, or anytime immediately after that (online or in stores).  We're going to play outside and do something for someone else.  It's going to be SWEET!

And why is it going to be a "very bear-y Bearentstein Bears Thanksgiving"?  Read The Bearenstein Bears Give Thanks.  We have (a lot).

Let the good time Thanksgiving fun roll!