Wrenches and Hitches

This past weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada, which is always the first weekend of Eve's fall break. I drove down after work last Thursday to be ready to drive home with her after her late-afternoon mid-term Friday. That all went great, but then Saturday morning Matt texted that he had Covid tested before getting on his flight home from Glasgow and he was positive, although just barely symptomatic. This threw all of our Thanksgiving plans into disarray, since my parents had been planning to come over for dinner Sunday but the new vaccine is going to be just a few weeks late to cover Thanksgiving here. 

We rallied fairly well, partly because this is just something you kind of have to expect will happen now, and because we had decided to order the Farm Boy Thanksgiving dinner since Eve and I and Matt would just be getting home and be tired from traveling. With my parents not coming and Matt coming home and heading straight to the basement, this meant I would not be spending all day cooking a meal I would only be eating with Eve (or alone, as it turned out, because she felt like she was getting sick, but it turned out to only be sniffles with no positive test ever). My parents turned 83 and 80 on September 20 and 23, and we're planning a weekend away with them and my sister and brother-in-law in a couple of weeks, so that will make up for it, as long as everybody can stay relatively healthy for it - it will be a worse blow if we have to cancel that one.

I divided the dinner up when we got it and delivered half to my mom and dad. They were fairly cheerful, all things considered. Fortunately they enjoy each other's company, and my mom has been keeping busy by baking a truckload of stuff for Eve to take back when she goes - she share with her housemates, who wrote my mom a letter of thanks addressed to "Dear Mrs. Evie's Grandma", which has redoubled her culinary enthusiasm. My dad also makes her a double batch of pancakes to freeze and have for breakfasts, and then pretends to be angry that she's taking them - this has kind of been their thing since she was little. 

Then it started raining on Saturday and didn't stop until today. We did the pumpkin patch thing with Eve and the friends that were home, but the epic, multi-pose, hilarious photo shoot we usually do wasn't happening - it was pouring, and windy, and freezing cold. 

But we still got to hang out with Davis and her boyfriend and her mom. And Eve still went and painted pumpkins with Davis and Jackson - one that matched her outfit perfectly. 

And Eve and I watched the finale of Only Murders in the Building together and tomorrow night we're going to watch Bottoms, which she saw in the theatre in Hamilton and loved and wants me to see ("it makes absolutely no sense, but it's hilarious.") And she got lots of Lucy cuddles. AND she just found out she got a sizeable role in the musical she auditioned for. And I bought a hepafilter and set it up outside the kitchen and powder room, and Matt has only come upstairs with an N95 on and no one else has gotten sick by day five of him being home, and he feels well enough that he can probably go do his invited talk in Korea next week.

All the Facebook memories from previous Thanksgivings made me a little like this:

But also like this:

 There were good times, and there will be again. We had a crowded house, and we will again. And honestly, having a hot turkey sandwich while binge-watching (I had to go to 'binge-watching' because I couldn't decide if 'binging' or 'bingeing' looked weirder) the last season of Sex Education in my pajamas was not the worst Thanksgiving I can imagine.