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November 30, 2004
T-day
The night before Thanksgiving, upon my arrival at Andrew's Mom's sister's house(the (Trumbolds), I was greeted with hugs. I met the grandpa for the first time and tried my best to stay lively for visiting. I was exhausted. I couldn't even stay up to wait for Sarah to arrive. What a jerk, huh?
Well, Thursday morning came and we loaded into the car to head for Andrew's Dad's family(the Shipps) stuff. It was really awkward at first when we got there. It's not a big family, but they don't all get together very often, so it was a bit odd to be the new person. Andrew has three adult cousins on that side, one of which is married and has two little girls. I had been warned for months about how terrible 5 year olf Savannah is. Much to my surprize, as well as to the rest of the family, she wasn't all that bad. She could be a little obnoxious at first seeing as she always gets what she wants, but it really could have been much worse. I think the biggest break down she had was when Andrew didn't sit in his assigned seat for dinner. (He sat by me, oh my!)
The meal left very much to be desired. Nothing had flavor except for the extremely salty stove-top-stuffing. There was no salt and pepper on the table. Even Andrew admitted the food wasn't so great.
After dinner things relaxed. I held 6 month old Aubry for a while and warned them that if I held her she would probably fall asleep because I have a tendency to do that to babies. Sure enough, she passed out in minutes. I don't really think it's a power so much as just getting them at the right time. I'm sure I won't have that ability with my own children.
Savannah also warmed up. After dinner she was sitting in my lap, telling me jokes, showing me all her toys, etc. I became the chosen visitor. Her knock knock jokes had me, Andrew, and Sarah in stitches. They weren't really funny at all, but she got so into them. I told her the old "knock knock", "who's there", "boo","boo who", "don't cry, it's only a joke". She lauged so hard. Then when she was telling it and was asked "who's there" she would say "boo who". And let me just say "boo who who" is even funnier than "boo who". I also played the couting fingers bit, you know when you tell the kid to sayb "eight" (or ate) after each number. Savannah just couldn't believe we all had 11 fingers. Her parents thanked me kindly and offered Savannah a chance to go home with me. She was eager at first, but the threat of doing chores at my house wasn't so appealing. She was happy to stay home, but not so happy to see us leave. She looked like she was giong to cry.
So, the food was bad, the company slightly awkward, but over all, I laughed enough to get me through the day. I don't know what I expected, but I don't think that was it.
We spent thre rest of the evening back just outside of Chicago at Aunt Carol and Grandpa Trumbold's house playing cards. Andrew and I lost Skip-bo by a landslide. The air mattress felt really good that night, and morning came too soon.
Posted by rachel at November 30, 2004 02:32 PM