My Thanksgiving

For those of you that want to know how my Thanksgiving in Seattle was; my first Thanksgiving away from home:

I started out the day by baking some pumpkin muffins with applesauce to bring with me.  They turned out really well, I had like 4 of them.  Anyways, I had also made some hummus a few days earlier so I brought that with me too.  Then Liz and I hopped in her car and drove to Shannon's house in North Bend, WA; maybe about a half hour drive from Seattle.  It was us, Shannon's parents, 4 of Shannon's brothers (she has 5), Shannon's grandmother who flew in from Texas, an old family friend, and one of Shannon's Dad's friends from work and his wife.  So we just hung out for a little bit and talked.  Then a really great dinner.  Shannon is also vegan so her Mom made some food especially for us.  She made this super delicious Israeli couscous with veggies and raisins and all kinds of spices.  And then some vegan mashed potatoes and then just regular vegetables.  All of which was really great.  I really appreciate that she made us some special food.  Then after dinner we played cards for a while.  Shannon's grandma destroyed us in Spades.  She like counts cards and everything.  But it was fun.  Then we just hung around and talked some more.  Liz and I spent the night over there.  Then yesterday we went hiking up Mt. Si.  The trail head is 1 mile from Shannon's house.  It was cool and the view from the top was for serious amazing.  Then, of course, we had some leftovers for lunch before heading back to Seattle.  Oh and I forgot to mention, yesterday morning one of Shannon's giant dogs ran into the room where I was sleeping and jumped on me to wake me up.  I guess I was sleeping where her brother usually sleeps and the dog was looking for him.  It was an interesting way to wake up.  And then I came downstairs to have some breakfast and there are these giant animals in the front yard.  And I was like dude, what are those? because I knew they weren't deer.  Apparently there are a lot of elk in that area.  I have never seen elk before.  Pretty sweet.

But yeah, it was a pretty great day and it's cool that I have friends here already that are willing to invite me to their family's home for Thanksgiving.  But it definitely was weird not being home with my family.  I missed playing cranium and taboo and yes, even LCR.  I missed being on Johnny's team and NEVER cheating but ALWAYS winning.  I missed standing in the kitchen and talking and then having Aunt Jack kick us all out of the kitchen because "Nanny needs some room to cook.  Everybody out."  I missed what Bryan is gonna get his girlfriend for Christmas being the topic of conversation at the dinner table (although I'm pretty sure that didn't happen this year).  Most of all, I missed the people.  I especially missed my sister.  I miss being able to talk to her about life and also just be silly together.  It would have been really nice to sit on the couch and talk about how her first few months of college have been.  Yeah, yeah, so this Thanksgiving was great, like really.  But it was different for sure.