Birthday a la Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving weekend was pretty good. The crew from Valencia drove up in the early afternoon, packing into my kitchen to steal my aprons and pour brandied eggnogs. We feasted on turkey, fatty fat fat tomato pie, broccoli casserole, sausage-stuffed pumpkin, chestnut dressing, and mashed coconut sweet potatoes. Gavin and Mat zoned in on the computer, battling lego droids for hours while the rest of us ate pie with our fingers. At this point Gavin starting calling Mat "dad". We converted the ex-husband's apartment into a hotel for the night. Friday was a day of snacking, ice skating, and battling through the Christmas Spirit to beat our way [unsuccessfully] to a Wii. Yuri had no shame scooting around the ice rink in a walker, while Gavin enjoyed falling spectacularly as often as possible. Marc joined us for a couple turns around the rink, only crashing to the ice once or twice after some amazing accidental triple-axles.

When all the guests were packed with leftovers, stuffed with pie, and kissed goodbye, we piled up cat food in our kitchens and drove up to the Bay. I've only ever visited San Francisco in the chilly months, and it was really nice walking through the brisk air into Union Square to meet Mr. HS. We threw ourselves across the couches in Anthropologie, we laughed at terrible break dancers, we ate really good Thai food and bought chocolate at the Ghirardelli shop. As the sun went down into the fog, we drove over the mountain into Santa Cruz, imposing ourselves on Mr. HS and fiance to allow Gavin a go at the overrated Wii until we were all mouse-eyed with exhaustion and went to our hotel.

Sunday morning we went into town and ate fresh scones, brie omelette, and eggs Benedict on hot sourdough. Walked through the downtown streets and dropped a dollar into the case of a street bag piper; drove to the seaside to take in the seals and salty air. We said goodbye to our friends over semi-authentic Hawaiian plate lunch, and left with a sense that we had found a backup town to think about moving to. Santa Cruz is really nice.

screaming skulls

Mike and I stood on our doorsteps, phones to our ears. I watched Gavin run down the sidewalk to the corner. "I see him," said Mike. Gavin disappeared around the corner and I heard his voice in the background over the phone. "Got him!" And so the boy has earned the relative independence of going to his dad's by himself. Apartment to myself, I took up my knitting, put on some tea, and turned on the tv. The Sad Sad Housewife channel was doing its best to contribute the the holiday suicide statistics by playing marathons of winter romantic comedies. When Harry Met Sally was followed by Serendipity, and I watched from under my eyebrows as my needles clicked until I finally shut it off, gathered my stuff, and went to visit the boys. Mike was baking a pie while Gavin lay quietly on the bed, penitent for having punted the cat. "You in trouble?" He nodded, sniffing miserably. I laid down beside him and pushed his hair out of his face and he whispered that he hoped he hadn't hurt her. At that moment, the cat scrambled up onto the bed, across my leg and onto his face, all four paws wrapped around his head and tongue tangling in his hair. He made a muffled noise and flapped his arms to fend her off, causing her to leap in a cartwheel down his torso, hug his leg, and attack it with her hind claws. "She doesn't look very hurt, does she?" Gavin laughed and curled against me as I shooed her off. After going through the bedside bookshelf, Gavin climbed under the covers and cozied up to listen to the Cavern of Screaming Skulls until he fell asleep. I snuck out and sat on the couch in front of Oz with the alpaca arm warmers I'm making to match my new knitted capelet that I'm never going to wear.

The dancers arrived on time, and I made myself busy in the kitchen making fudge while they practiced dancing to bagpipe music. Fudge used to be my specialty, but all my attempts have puddled since moving here. I finally bought a jar of marshmallow fluff, followed the recipe on the back, and was annoyed when it set perfectly. I suppose anything will set if you choke it with marshmallows. Including myself, because I did just that.

After stumbling out from his nap, Gavin and I gathered up our goods and walked back home. We wound down the evening by watching Japanese commercials and snowboarding videos. "Wow!" said Gavin, watching a body whirl through the air, "That's so cooool! And I would never do that." I kissed his head.