Whiny Wednesday - planning for Thanksgiving

UPDATE: My Jamie doll is feeling better and has been fever free since yesterday afternoon! She felt good enough to fight with her sister today! Praise God! Can't wait to give her smooches!

My niece Jamie has the flu. Poor baby is soooo sick... she keeps running fevers... doesn't feel like eating... She went back to the doctor yesterday and there's really no change. It's been almost a week and she's still sick. Angie worried that she had developed some kind of secondary infection - because she is, after all, my girl and that's exactly what usually happens to Aunt Heather. She hadn't... still just the flu. That means that unless she has a swift and total recovery Jim and Angie won't be with us for Thanksgiving which breaks my heart... and Angie's heart too. She was tearful about it yesterday. Our family doesn't do a good job of getting together but we've managed to hold on to a fairly consistent Thanksgiving tradition.

This year we're going to Aunt Linda's. My mom is #6 of 7 kids. There were 4 boys, then 3 girls. The girls were born in January 1947, September 1948 and February 1950... so 3 girls in the space of three years. My mom is the middle girl (which tells my mom's age but ... I mean... I'm 42 so it wasn't a huge secret) and we usually do Thanksgiving at either the older sister's (Aunt Ginger) or younger sister (Aunt Linda). The "boys" and their families rarely join us but even so... we usually have a good crowd for Thanksgiving. Ginger has two girls - Christie and Amanda. They both are married... Christie has one baby, Cole and Amanda has two boys- Austin and Rowan. Linda has 3 boys... Andy (who we rarely see) Kevin - who is the father of the infamous Cousin Devyn - Austin's "best cousin"- and a spunky little girl, Sydney. Linda's 3rd son Russell is married and has a little boy. Although I have 4 brothers... Jim and I are the only consistent attendees of the annual Thanksgiving dinner. My younger brother Michael is Jehovah's Witness and they don't celebrate holidays. My brother Bryan (partner of the fabulous Candice) alternate holidays with us and her family in Ohio. My brother David has pulled away from the family and I haven't seen him since 2006.

Thanksgiving will be at Linda's house in McDonough... which is roughly two hours south of me. It's not exactly over the river and through the woods but it will involve a little time behind the wheel. I don't mind driving and unlike most folks who live here in the mountains, I don't mind driving in Atlanta. I'm accustomed to it. It just requires a little forethought and a little patience. I can usually do the trip without a bathroom break but Austin and I usually stop once along the way for a bite to eat or to top off the gas tank or something. We never hurry, we never worry. We set the garmin to get our ETA and just enjoy the ride. Austin uses my laptop and our ac/dc converter for the car to watch movies. Or he sleeps.

My contribution to the meal is deviled eggs. Every year I leave a little extra deviled egg filling and make one egg salad sandwich for my Aunt Ginger. She looks forward to her special appetizer every year. She's already facebooked me to remind me. I always do something else besides deviled eggs... this year I'm thinking about doing that awesome rosemary hummus that I made earlier in the week. I don't know... it depends on how energetic I am after work and after I made a couple dozen deviled eggs and one egg salad sandwich. I have to make a grocery store stop and I really didn't want to... i hate crowds... but I'll hit it on lunch and maybe treat myself to a Starbucks for my trouble.

It's whiny wednesday so I suppose I should come up with a few things to complain about.
1. what is it with my weight being up on wednesday every week? Up today... and there's no reason because i've been eating strictly under my points all week. Cyclical.
2. Austin's off school today so I'll come home to a messy kitchen.
3. It's thick fog outside... tough for driving and makes for frizzy hair.
4. Have to make a grocery run today... and it will be crowded. Ugh.
5. My kitchen floor desperately needs mopping.
6. Bitty is peeing on clothes. Brat. I put everything away but I had a stack of clothes HIGH UP on a shelf that needed to be hung up... he knocked down a few of them and peed on them.
7. damp weather = bursitis bothering me... my elbow and wrist are achey
8. we may be minus two little red haired girls at our thanksgiving dinner which makes me soooo sad!
9. short staffed at work means we're working harder and getting less done... hard to do any marketing when we're busy every second of the day with clients.

It's almost time for me to grab a shower and get the day under way. I hope that wherever you're going, whoever you're going to be with, whatever you're eating and whatever traditions you do or don't keep, that you'll find things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Love and hugs, y'all!