Thanksgiving

Gretch and I were blessed to spend our Thanksgiving holiday with both sides of the family. This is one of the things for which I am most grateful. We live close to both sets of parents, so it is possible to see them often, although we don't get to travel to Washington quite as often as we would like, it is still nice to know that Mum and Dad are only an hour and a half away.

We went to my parents' house on Thanksgiving Day and stayed until Saturday morning. While there, we spent time with many of our nephews and nieces, worked on teaching our niece Liberty how to throw her head back and cackle and then utter the phrase "foolish mortals" (still a work in progress--she doesn't talk yet, and the throwing her head back and the cackling parts haven't quite synched up with each other), and we hung out with some of my brothers and their wives. And, of course, we ate. Oh, goodness, how we ate!

Mum and Dad made salad, pies, and provided a home for the meal. Tom and Tabitha made cranberry sauce, rolls, and pies. Aaron and Megan provided the turkey and green bean casserole. Abram and Jen made the sweet potatoes. Gretch and I made the mashed potatoes and the jello. It was our first time ever--thanks, Megan, for the recipe and preparation advice! Ariana made some of the pies, cleaned the house, and set the table. John brought a pie and cupcakes.

You may have noticed that we had several people making pies. There is a reason for this. The Valencic family has a wonderful tradition for Thanksgiving. None of us know exactly when it started, but it has been around long enough that it doesn't really matter. It is that there will be one pie made for each person present for Thanksgiving dinner. With my parents, three of my older brothers and their families, us, my baby sister, and my parents' friend John, we had a total of 22 people gathered around the three tables. Due to a slight miscalculation, which was in no way a bad thing, we ended up with 23 pies, as well as about a dozen or so cupcakes.

After dinner and clean-up, we went to Aaron and Megan's for an evening of playing the newest genus of Trivial Pursuit with my other siblings in attendance. We were on teams and had a great time, even if Gretch and I lost in a most spectacular fashion. (As a side note, I now know that Death Valley is a national park.)

Friday morning brought about another round of fantastical Thanksgiving traditions. First, I sent Gretch off with Mum and Ariana to go blitzing at 5 am. They gleefully shopped for a few hours, found some amazing deals, and then came home for breakfast. This is what I refer to as the true Breakfast of Champions. Pie from the night before. I decided to start off slowly, so I only took six pieces: Dutch apple, razzleberry, pumpkin, pecan, peach, and chocolate chip banana creme. Upon finishing that, I down a piece of lemon meringue. I thought I was done, but Gretch asked me to finish her traditional apple and pumpkin. So I did. Nine pieces of pie, one very happy stomach, and several delicious burps later, breakfast was done and I was ready to go shopping with Mum.

In addition to finding my wife's gift, I was able to get several movies (on DVD) from Wal-Mart for the ridiculously low price of $1.96, as well as the amazing Collector's Edition of Avatar. So I felt that the shopping extravaganza was a success. I also got to spend quality time with my mother, which is something that I don't get to do nearly as often as I would like. (And yes, Mum, I consider discussing about the differing qualities and prices of toilet paper to be part of that quality time.)

Friday afternoon was spent watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I with Gretch, Abram, and Jen. It was an excellent movie and stopped at an excellent point. There were some complaints, some scenes that seemed too short, and the usual geeky commentary about the strengths and weaknesses of the various directors over the course of the franchise's nine years, but all in all, I think that we all enjoyed it, even if we do have to wait an insane eight months for the conclusion!

After dinner with some of the family, Gretch and I went to see our friend Kerik, who had recently traveled to Australia and brought back a gift of Tim Tams for us. We chatted for a bit, but didn't stay for long because Gretch had been running on severe sleep deprivation, so we made plans to get together in Washington again soon and came back home.

Despite being tired, there was no way we were going to finish the day before engaging in another epic game of Scrabble with one of my older brothers. So Tom, Tabitha, Gretch, and I broke out the Scrabble board and let the competition begin. With amazing words like glamped (the past tense of glam camping) and dorkage (the quality of being a dork), the game was great. Tom ended up winning by about three points, but fun was had by all.

Saturday morning brought about bad times, though. Gretch and I were both sick, with the culprit most likely being gastroenteritis (stomach flu) or possibly food poisoning (although I doubt this, as only four out of the 22 people who ate dinner with us ended up getting sick, and we all got sick more than 24 hours after eating dinner). This put a huge damper on the end of the weekend, but after some clear sodas and a Priesthood blessing, we loaded up the car and made it home without any major catastrophes. Upon arriving home, we hunkered down with the saltine crackers and ginger ale that Gretch's mother brought over for us, and watched Judgment, which is an absolutely ridiculous movie that is so bad it is good. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world run by the One Nation Earth government, which is led by Franco Macalousso, also known as Lucifer. The O.N.E. government is trying to track down and execute all of the remaining Christians (aka haters--they hate mankind, apparently, although this is never explained). Helen Hannah is arrested for the crime of hating humanity and is tried in the O.N.E. Court of Justice, but the trial quickly becomes a trial seeking to prove that God does not exist. It kind of goes downhill from there. Actually, it kind of starts at the bottom of the hill and creates new hills that only go downward. Kind of like Dad having to walk through six miles of snow uphill both ways to get to school when he was a kid. We don't know how the physics of it work out, but somehow that is what happened.

Sunday morning saw some slight recovery, and we were able to add pepperoni and cheese to our steady diet of saltines and ginger ale. We watched the original theatrical release of Avatar and then went to Gretch's parents house for their Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, we were only able to eat rolls and jello, but it was still nice spending time with her side of the family, which included her parents, her younger siblings, her grandparents and aunt in Illinois, as well as our friend Blake and Anjanette, and missionaries currently serving in our ward at church. It was a good evening with good fun, strange topics, debates on the methods of determining personal spirituality and holiness before the Lord, and discussions of literature and literary styles.

And thus ended Thanksgiving 2010. Despite being ill, Gretch and I have much to be thankful for in our lives. I like the way it is put in the grace used at the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico: "For food, for raiment, for life, for opportunity, for friendship and fellowship, we thank Thee, O Lord."