Thankful and well fed

It's Black Friday, and I'm staying as far from the shopping frenzy as I possibly can.

I'm at my Aunt Orletta and Uncle Don's home in College Place, Washington, where I have all the comforts of living and a great computer to tap on. Why take my laptop with me when I can use somebody else's and hijack my own computer at home with GoToMyPC? I'm in Don's home office using his computer; Orletta says hers isn't that dependable.

Yesterday we had a great vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner shared by Arline and Sid, Ben, Jessie, Matthew, David and Mandy, Don and Orletta, Linda and Emily, and me. Arline made several kinds of pie, and the pumpkin pie, she said, was the best she'd ever made. We had real whipped cream and grocery store topping for the pies, which included blackberry, apple, and raspberry as well as pumpkin. Arline put together gluten "turkey" slices that looked very real, plus some other meat-like food, delicious gravy, cranberry sauce. And don't forget the wonderful tossed salad, cooked squash, and thin green beans. Plus fresh home-made bread and grape juice from the family's grapevines with a bit of club soda added.

That was enough to make a skinny person fat, but Linda wowed us with treats from the chocolate factory where she works in Portland. She does all their advertising and promotion graphic design and is very involved in making decisions about how all of this comes together. And she gets samples now and then.

We're all going to a movie in a bit. I'm going to drive over to Arline's, and we'll take off from there. First I'll make away with any pie that may still be lingering on the counter...