Thanksgiving Tradition

My family has a lot of traditions.  I think that we've discussed this before.  We love our themes.  Thanksgiving is no different!

On Thursday, we go to my Mom's sister's house (my aunt).  My Mom's cousin lives with her, and they've adopted a now-6 year old daughter (now that's a long story!).  So our Thursday tradition is to go to her house, with each family member bringing a side dish.  I have been in charge of the relish tray for years.  It's one of the easiest side dishes for me since I live far away from them.  I try to buy the pickles and olives in August, but sometimes I forget.  :/
At Thanksgiving dinner, we have the tradition of Aunt Linda barring people from the kitchen, of a 5-minute Picking Time when we can eat pieces of turkey skin, of my brother-in-law (BiL) carving the turkey, of board games and sometimes a walk, and of the younger kids playing outside (when it's not raining).

This year, I flew in late on Wednesday night (or early on Thursday morning), so my sister and the kids picked me up and I stayed at their house.  Although I hate mornings, it was nice to wake up to the smell of coffee (my BiL is an early riser) and sound of my youngest nephew running around upstairs.  He never walks, he runs.  Or skips.  Or jumps.  That kid has a lot of energy.  Later, my BiL told me that he went o the porch to grind the beans for the coffee because he didn't want to wake me up; how sweet!  I can just see him out there with his Superman pj pants on, standing in the frost on the porch, grinding the beans.  :)

On Friday, we watch the last year's home movies and eat a guacamole bean dip.  This is one of my favorite traditions.  I love seeing the kids in action!  And I love guacamole.

On Saturday, the ladies go to a craft bazaar at out old high school (sponsored by the band, so me, my sister, and my BiL all had worked at in during high school) and the guys put up the Christmas lights.  In the evening, I usually watch a movie with my cousin.

This year, my BiL had to work at the fire station on Friday, so we combined our Friday and Saturday traditions in one day  It was a great day.  I loved shopping with my niece at the craft bazaar.  This year, I bought a lot of jewelry for myself.  I was looking for some rustic decorations for my co-worker friend, but was unsuccessin finding anything that I really liked for her.  I did find some holiday decorations for my sister, though.  I fly a lot for days like that. 

Ferris Beach

I did not like this book at all.

It had a rambling plot that didn't really go anywhere. The first person writing was way too intellectual for a a young teen. There was a rape that was probably not crucial for the plot. In addition to the rape, it seems like an awful lot of truly horrible things happened to several families in this small town, more than seems likely. Which makes me wonder that these horrible occurrences were mere plot devices, attempts to make the plot move at all. Partially unsuccessful.

In the end, as a coming of age story, it pretty much sucked and had no relevance to experiences of me or most of the people that I know. People who are demographically similar to the characters in this novel.

My review? Pass this one up. I can't figure out why it ever got on my reading list in the first place.