Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone and all in all I had a good one. We took the dog and headed up to My Grandparents’ house in West Memphis AR. For the first time since Heather and I have been going to Thanksgiving there, 
Heather got a hotel room so we wouldn’t have to sleep on the living room floor. Actually, the two of us, my brother and his wife all shared a room (with the dog).
We got there pretty early on Wednesday and my Grandparents took everyone out to eat at The Ole’ Feed House, which was known for it’s Catfish, Seafood, and BBQ Ribs. Unfortunately I don’t like Catfish, Seafood, or really, BBQ Ribs unless they’re really good. What I saw as we walked through the line (it was a buffet of course) was a bowl of lettuce that I think qualified as salad, a bowl of potato salad, and a bowl of imitation crab meat salad; followed by about fifteen feet of beige consisting of pretty much anything you can fry and a few things you can’t, and finally, a bowl of baked beans. Lets just say, it wasn’t worth the $10.92 per adult that my Grandfather paid for all 13 of us. I feel very sorry for my Vegitarian uncle. I must say, the most entertaining moment at dinner was walking past the woman who had a full dinner plate stacked 4 inches high with onion rings. Nothing else, just Onion Rings. **shudder**
After dinner we played a little Catch Phrase with my mom and my aunt Jackie while we waited for Jeremy and Christy to show up (they weren’t expected in until about 11:00. Finally they made it in and the four of us headed over to the hotel.
Thurday was Heather’s birthday so she slept in, but the rest of us (Jeremy, Christy, and I) headed back over to the house around 8:00 and had to witness a crazed breakfast fiasco involving some unexpected eggs and a bottle of syrup. It’s a long story, but the comedy was high, I just don’t feel like reiterating it. Lets just say you can get the impression of the mood around my grandmother by watching Mother. Needless to say, if you’re offered eggs at my grandparents house, be sure to take as little as is physically possible, because if they run out, they’ll spend 30 minutes making more that won’t get eaten. Secondly, if it’s not already on the table, because if you ask for it, it won’t appear, but 30 other things will.
Thanksgiving was over at Jackie’s house. She has a beautiful Classic American house in downtown Memphis that is decorated in a very unique, artistic style with a modern sculptures and collected antiques. Dinner was excellent, we ate a wonderful meal around a giant 16 person table. After dinner, my cousin Bridgette played guitar and sang. She was really shy and quiet in the beginning, but once she started, she just wouldn’t stop and was greatly offended if we even spoke during her “performance.” That evening we went back to my grandparents’ house and played some more Catch Phrase, this time with mom and dad, Jeremy and Christy.
Friday we were supposed to all go out and do something, anything! Unfortunately we couldn’t decide on a movie and when we finally decided we were just going to go into Downtown Memphis, we waited and waited for my other aunt to show up because she was going to be going with us. Jackie is one of those kinds of people who loves to do things, going out, just walking around, she finds very interesting things to do in the city and has been there for a long time so she knows what’s going on. We were going to ride on the Main Street trolley and just see how Memphis is being renovated. Unfortunately she also gets very frustrated when we’re not doing anything so we finally gave up waiting and just left. Eight of us (mom, Jackie, her kids Bridgette and Cody, Jeremy, Chrsity, Heather and I) drove out to Memphis and just rode the trolley up and down Main. Unfortunately we waited so long, we really only had time to ride up and down once, and not get off anywhere. It was still fun and it was something to do that wasn’t sitting around the house working on a crossword puzzle for the entire day.
Friday night didn’t go as well as it could have. Jeremy, Christy, Heather and I had wanted to watch this movie on TV that we read about the day before. We had been kind of looking forward to it. Unfortunately my grandparents were offended because we never played dominoes with them the whole time we were there (notice we played Catch Phrase twice already and could have very easilly played dominoes instead). The complained that all we did while we were there was watch TV (bah!). To make matters worse, while we were watching the movie, Ia (my dog) threw up in the living room and while I was racing to get it cleaned up as fast as possible I got some distinctly vicious looks from my grandfather. Needless to say, we didn’t feel obligated to return to the house Saturday morning (my parents were leaving Saturday while Jeremy, Christy, Heather and I were not leaving until Sunday; so the plan was to let everyone else think we were leaving Satruday too and then just spend the rest of the day alone). My mom and I talked, and I aired my issues, and I decided we could stop by but I didn’t bring the dog.
Saturday, of course, the four of us went over to my Grandparents house in the morning to say goodbye and pretend we were leaving that morning, then we all went back to the hotel and went to sleep for anohter couple hours. That afternoon/evening we went over to Jackie’s house again and went over to her husband’s gallery showing went to a really cool video store, got some coffee and then walked around some shops. That night we ate at a place called Boscos that was really good, a bit expensive, but really damn good.
Sunday, we drove home and decided all in all that we had a pretty good trip. It had it’s ups and downs, but it was Thanksgiving, it’s not a family holiday without a bit of tension and bad blood with all that Turkey.