Endless Celebration

Thanksgiving week was intense this year. Kevin and I hosted for the second year in a row, and we had a busier week than I've had in a long time.

Dad and his girlfriend arrived on Tuesday, and Connor came over for dinner and pinochle. We didn't quite finish the game before it was time for bed, but we played some.

On Wednesday my cousins arrived, as did Danielle and Eric. We ended up having more people over for dinner on Wednesday evening than we did for Thanksgiving. The meal was a lot simpler though, since it just involved chopping things up and setting them out on the buffet so everyone could make their own tacos.

Thursday was the Thanksgiving whirlwind. We cooked. We ate. We drank. I fell asleep before the football game ended, but other people were up until almost 2.

Since no one had to be anywhere, we spent Friday drinking mimosas and beer and playing games. Once again I fell asleep before the rest of the party. I just can't get by on as little sleep as I used to.

Everyone left fairly early on Saturday morning (well Connor stuck around for a while because we couldn't find his keys and then we watched The Lego Movie instead of looking for them because sitting was better than standing). We did some picking up, but mostly Kevin and I lounged around building up strength for his high school reunion that night.

The reunion was fun, even if I was starting to feel a bit burnt out. It was interesting to meet a bunch of the TJ crowd, and it was nice that there was no pressure on me to know anyone or make small talk. For example, after I met a bronie, I was able to exit the conversation and avoid him for the rest of the evening with very little effort.

Sunday was a day of rest and laundry and leftovers. I tried to go to bed early, but ended up reading until my normal bedtime. Oops.

Monday was my company party, which meant that our branch of the office was full and noisy and then we all had to troop downtown for the fancy dinner. I cannot for the life of me understand why this party is on a Monday instead of a Friday, but there it is. The servers kept our wine glasses full throughout dinner (so much for everyone gets one glass of wine, though I suppose that if you never finish it it all counts as the same glass). We left early, and I still barely made it home awake.

On top of the Monday night party, my company scheduled a mandatory meeting for Tuesday morning. I made it, but it was rough. When I got home, I basically just went to sleep. I spent the entire night dreaming that I was wandering around a library inside of a castle, which helped to refresh me. I woke up Wednesday morning feeling almost human.

The house still isn't quite back in order following the festivities of the past week, but it's getting closer. Two more loads of laundry ought to get us there. We're finally almost down with the leftovers. I'm even starting to get excited to cook again. But this week took a lot more out of me than I was expecting it to. We may need to scale back the Thanksgiving celebration in future years (or at least not follow it immediately with back to back parties).