thanksgiving2001

thanksgiving was lovely, as usual. we (me, mom, dad, christie, karl, david) went to the smiths (get ready: marty, mike, martin, morgan--that kind of thing really shouldn't be allowed) for dinner. i made chocolate swirl cheesecake. morgan made his kickass mashed potatoes. there were two kinds of cranberrys, neither of them canned, and two kinds of wine (chardonnay, beaujolais). much food was eaten, and then the "kids" (ages 19-26) headed out to the movies. we saw monsters, inc (according to tradition, which is that we see an animated feature on thanksgiving). it was cute. billy crystal was funny, as expected. john goodman was earnest. the animation was great, and the premise was clever. the plot itself was predictable, but hey, it was a kids movie with a message (the monsters in your closet are real), so what can you expect.

didn't get up before noon most days. played several games of monopoly (karl is The Evil Landlord) and one game of trivial pursuit (christie and i kicked some british ass). got christie's xmas gift (chain belt with schparklies (translated: sparklies. translated: fake diamonds)). dad, as usual, put "something you made; something you wrote..." on his xmas wish list. this, as you might imagine, makes it hard to shop for him. and you know, it really sort of pisses me off. i mean, really. i *don't* have the time to be making stuff for him, nor do i have the kinds of supplies that i'd need if i *did* have the time. unless i just made him a notebook-paper card or something. so, i usually buy him something (well, i often give him a photograph of me, which seems awfully narcissistic, but he loves it and it's easy) like a book. and, lest he think otherwise, i actually put a lot of thought into the book i buy him. this year, i'd like to buy him the selfish gene by richard dawkins, a book that explains in page-turning language how evolution works, under darwin's theory of natural selection. it's a great book, and i think my dad would like it. but i'm a little bitter now, and i feel like making him a notebook-paper card instead of getting him the selfish gene because he wants "something you made." hmph.