Thanksgiving Report

Well, it's still Monday--and I did warn you that I might not gt to this post until evening. I got home about noon today, after a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend at my sister's in DC. Jed, Nazgol, and Nate were also there; Meghan stayed behind in Bogota to show the Colombians how to cook turkey. (Not really! I think she found it a little daunting to figure out how to visit her mom's and dad's families as well as Nate's in one four or five day trip to the US. Not to mention expensive.)

On Thursday, the six of us (Susie and Bob, Jed, Nazgol, Nate, and I) were joined for dinner by my aunt, who took the train from Philadelphia for the day, and five good friends of Bob's and Susie's, who have been at many other Thanksgivings. Nate was the youngest in our party, but the age range extended upward from 30, past my aunt, who is 83, to Dinah, 98, the mother of Bob's best friend Hank, whom he's known since grade school. A very lively crew, and everyone with every marble intact.

The highlight of the day, however, was Jed and Nazgol's announcement of their engagement! They will be married in LA on Labor Day weekend...so I definitely have a new goal!

Friday, Susie introduced us to SpaWorld, a Korean mega-spa in suburban Virginia. (Actually, Jed had been there for a bachelor party some months ago, and raved about it.) I was a bit apprehensive about this, thinking the humidity might make breathing pretty difficult for me. But the humidity didn't bother me, and anyway, SpaWorld offers a lot more than humidity and hot baths. There's the "poultice room," a huge area with mats on heated tile floors where people hang out and eat Korean food and make little forays into the surrounding saunas, each with a different feature. The only one I tried--not being a big sauna fan, ever--was one with a thick layer of marble-sized clay balls to dig into or lie on. Fun! We stayed at SpaWorld for something like six hours, and I don't remember ever being more relaxed. And on the way home, we stopped at Nazgol's uncle's house and had take-out Iranian food with him, his wife, and their two very smart sons who were about to celebrate their 7th and 9th birthdays.

Nazgol stayed at her uncle's for the rest of the weekend; the rest of us returned to Susie's and on Saturday we tried to see "Milk" as our traditional Thanksgiving weekend movie, but it was sold out. Instead, we opted for "Slumdog Millionaire." I'd read a bad review of it, and resisted going, but I really enjoyed it, and I think the others did, too.

Other weekend activities for me were pretty much confined to sitting on the couch or in the dining room reading, and seeing my old friend and housemate Julie who lives near Susie and came over for tea yesterday. I skipped the traditional Rock Creek Park walk--not enough stamina or breath.

Now that I'm home, I'm turning my attention to getting ready for my annual solstice party, which I will again host with the help of my good friends Janet and Diane. They are coming over on Thursday to help address invitations, so today's task involved getting the address list together and getting the invitation ready to duplicate--which helps explain why it took a while to get to this post.

Still haven't heard from Chicago, but I imagine I will before I write another post. Stay tuned.