My Thanksgiving was wonderful. I spent a good five hours or so with my parents, grandparents, sisters, and one sister's boyfriend. There were traditional dishes like turkey, gravy, stuffing, crumb coated potatoes, and green bean casserole, along with the slightly different brussel sprout thing* and pumpkin rolls. I ate myself into a coma - almost literally. Directly after dinner I staggered to the sofa where I promptly fell asleep for an hour, despite repeated attempts to keep me awake by my little sister. I even missed the call for dessert. Falling asleep was no mean feat, especially since when we're all together, my family is very loud.

My favorite part of the evening was when I sat with my two younger sisters reminiscing about the past and sharing our fond memories of each other.

Caroline, 19, chuckled at a sudden thought. "Hey, remember that time years ago that you dragged me up the stairs by my hair to do your chores?"

I laughed. "Oooh yeah, I remember that! Matt was over!"

"Yeah, and he thought it was hilarious!" Caroline looked down at her arms. "Your nails were all long, and you scratched me up."

"Now that part was an accident."

"Oh, I know!" Caroline grinned. "But the pulling me up the stairs by my hair part wasn't."

"What about that time you threw a glass of water on me when I was in bed asleep, and I chased you up the stairs, punched you a few times, then repeatedly slammed your head into the wall with the door!" I shook my head, remembering the event. "I was in a rage!"

Caroline burst out laughing. "OF COURSE! I was terrified! If I'd only run just a little bit faster I would have made it to Mom's room, locked the door, and gone out the window!"

"Teach you to throw water on me," I said with a laugh.

Susannah, 11, smiled smugly. "I was an angel."

I gave her a look. "Oh please. You were an unholy terror. You were biting way past when you should not have been biting any more. I was hauling you to your room for time out once, and you bit me so hard you drew blood through my sweatshirt."

"I remember the biting," Caroline groaned.

At this point my dad, who had been watching us, laughing intermittently but mostly just staring, broke in. "Do you guys have any good memories of each other?" he asked.

Silence.

Caroline sobered, lost in thought, then visibly brightened as she turned to me. "You read the Shannara books out loud to me! That was great!"

"That was great," I agreed.

Silence.

"Umm.... that's about it," I said to my dad.

We all laughed.

We were joking around, of course. We've had a lot of really great times together that didn't involve violence. I realize that the conversation related above makes us sound like homicidal maniacs (me, especially), but I promise we're not. We were rambunctious kids always testing the limits with each other, and these things that seem to horrific when hearing about them for the first time have really turned into a huge source of amusement for my sisters and I. "Hey, remember that time when you kicked me in the face and broke my glasses"** is always great for a laugh, however strange that may sound.

It sounds cheesy, this last holiday being Thanksgiving an all, but it's times like that, when we're all together and having a good time, that reminds me to be thankful for my family. Thankful that we're all together and relatively healthy and sane. We may fight bitterly at times, we may go through as many awful patches as good ones, but there really is no replacement for family.

Now if only the aunt, uncles, and cousins would move here from the east coast, we'd be set!

How was your Thanksgiving?


*The brussel sprout thing and I have a love/hate relationship. I hate looking at it, but then I eat it and I love it but hate it at the same time because even though it tastes really good I can't stand the texture. Then I look at it and think, "I don't want any more" but I remember how good it tasted so I try it one more time and love it but hate it too....

**That was Caroline kicking me in the face. Just for clarification.