photo by Roger Smith
Yawn. Blink. Sigh. Ugh.
There is something so wonderful and completely hideous about my favorite Holiday… A day meant for feasting with loved ones and acknowledging our blessings, what’s not to like? But it has become a day of bizarre gluttony (sorry turducken fans but I’m looking at you) with a shifting focus that has begun to imply that our day of thanks and remembrance is really a fueling up for the extreme shopping events taking place the next day.
I love a deal as much as the next blogger but the attention and focus on the early hours shoppers really made me sad this year. Can you tell I spent the weekend in Jersey?
Something tells me that there weren’t a lot of us Hill dwellers in those throngs..Although I bet the traffic was a total breeze getting to those bog box stores in the ‘burbs.
Let me hear about your weekend? Did anyone rise at 3 to get a good deal at Target?
Sharee: We returned from our Thanksgiving holiday Saturday (after making two passes on Hwy 50 just outside Annapolis to retrieve a bike wheel blown off the top of the car by the gale-force winds). The remainder of the weekend was spent strolling the neighborhood, checking out and contemplating Christmas trees at Eastern Market and slowly chipping away at all the leftovers.
Jon: Loved having a four-day weekend in DC, not traveling and fighting traffic or security lines. We took a Thanksgiving morning trip to the U.S. Botanic Garden to see the holiday displays and followed up a wonderful family dinner with a walk around the FDR Memorial at night (where we were practically the only folks there). Amid catching up on laundry and small household projects, we also managed a pilgrimage to Ikea on Friday followed by a great dinner at H Street Country Club, some Christmas shopping on Saturday and a stroll around Eastern Market on Sunday.
Robert: Showed a band from California around DC on Saturday, then went to the Natural History Museum followed by a quiet evening at home. Sunday afternoon was spent at THEARC, watching the Washington Ballet’s Nutcracker. Another children’s birthday party rounded out the weekend.
Claudia: I spent Thanksgiving with family in New Orleans, where I ate beignets and po’ boys and fried shrimp and way too much other delicious food. We braved the airports to return on Saturday (no encounters with the body scanner machines or pat-downs), and made it back to DC in time for me to catch up with a friend over dinner. On Sunday I went to the Skins game, which was a depressing way to end a long weekend. At least the weather was nice.
Liz: Thanksgiving was at my parents with the lasagna before the turkey, and Pies! Pies ! Pies! back to Eastern Market for overpowering scent of Fir tree Fir Tree Fir tree. I checked out Labyrinth, stocked area retail stores with Maury ES holiday note cards, brought kids to Wash Ballet’s Nutcracker at THEARC, leaving with a Rat King and a Sugar Plum. Late evening walk yielded an old print of my college a the vendors were closing shop. Spied Christmas trees already positioned in many a window on my walk home.
Jen: Headed up 95 to my uncle’s house on Staten Island where we had more food than was realistic. We took an uncharacteristically introspective spin at sharing what we were thankful for this year and it made me so grateful for my wonderful crazy family. So grateful that I will spare you the details of driving through Delaware.