Thanksgiving One
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Saturday evening they set up the decorations for Carrie, and Linnea blew up the balloons with OLeif’s help and taped them all over the living room walls. Apparently, Carrie returned home late after another night at work.
So Dad ordered Simple Simon’s pizza and they watched clips on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Anne Boleyn, the Taj Mahal, and other historical events until it was time for OLeif, Collette, and Joe to leave for the Old St. Charles Picasso’s where Flint River was playing again.
The grand Stan-o was there, and wanted to know if Collette ever got to China in her reading of Marco Polo. Molly and Jo-Jo arrived later, and Jo-Jo started playing chess (or perhaps it was checkers) with a complete stranger.
After leaving at nine, OLeif and Collette returned home, where OLeif sat up drawing chubby chameleons for a commissioned logo until 11:30.
At church that Sunday morning, a harmonica was added to the morning music. And Linnea was running what looked like a little black market on the floor behind the last row of chairs in the sanctuary. Someone had been passing out candy again (apparently), and Linnea was divvying up the goods, which also included a metallic paddle ball.
Sunday was lunch at the Silverspoons over pork chops, Denae’s homemade mashed potatoes, and rolls, while there was discussion over housing, Austrian economics (to a limited extent), and Thanksgiving plans. Only Curly was absent, being involved in several musical endeavors that afternoon.
After baking the potato casserole later that afternoon, it was off to the Thanksgiving dinner and service at church.
Collette wondered if the week was going to be a blur of a week – busy. The schedule seemed quite full.
Meanwhile, the dinner itself was full of every sort of potato, plenty of good turkey, rolls, and the usual green bean casserole. And also as usual, Rose took two plates’ worth, one loaded only with cornbread, rolls, and macaroni, and she didn’t finish either. Dad made quick work of the leftovers. But she did visit the dessert table shortly later to browse the pumpkin pies and brownies.
Later, after hymns and songs, Todd Akin addressed the crowd regarding pilgrims and freedoms and religion while OLeif and Rose tried to claim floor territory underneath the table without making it too obvious that there was a battle going on.
And the evening ended with Dad, OLeif, and Collette chasing the numerous kids off the stairs at various intervals, who had all decided it was a grand idea to make paper airplanes out of their autumn leaf place mats and launch them from the top steps. As they had already been told on numerous occasions in the past six months, never to climb the stairs, Collette was still hardly surprised that she had to bring them down, yet again, before someone broke their neck.