Thanksgiving in Irvine

November 30, 2003

I’ve traditionally spent Thanksgiving at my mom’s house in Tempe, so there are a few things I’ve grown used to over the years. There was never any question that I would eat unquantifiable amounts of gravy and stuffing and that Josh would come over and eat on the order of hundreds of those little white cookies that MG is so famous for. The Annual Goons vs. Girlymen football game on the Kyrene del Cielo stomping grounds was always marked on my calendar, as was Justin hammering Brandon on that one memorable play each year. And, of course, I could always count on Pejman’s yearly email where he refers to Thanksgiving as “Thanksgivins”. If you’ll recall, Lindsay officially renamed it as “Thanks”, and Jen C. made the final modification to “Thanksies”.

This year, with Lindsay in la France and Marty doing “his own thing”, my mom and Devon traveled to Irvine to spend the weekend with her sister, Sue, and family. When I found out that Grandmar, my aunt Carol and uncle Rob would also be joining them, I had no choice but Irvine as my Thanksgiving destination. As expected, the food was ridiculous and I would have sold my soul to the devil for some of those Barbieri deserts. Evidently, the Ghost of Marty Past was in attendance, as there was a great deal of ping pong and board games (e.g., Scrabble) being played throughout the holiday. And, just in case anyone was wondering, the word “fazy” is in fact NOT a word, though it is potentially worth dozens of points if nobody notices. Other leisurely highlights include but are not limited to:

John starting a game of Scrabble off by using all of his letters to spell the word “timeout”.

Devon laughing at this goofy little kid and “forcing” me to take this picture (see photo).

Devon, Grandmar, and I sifting through random profiles on www.facethejury.com and laughing at people’s pictures and descriptions, as well as the sheer absurdity of the website.

Showing up two minutes late for my cousin Jessica’s soccer game and missing her kick a goal.

Watching Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien with Carol and Rob.

Going to “The Original Pancake House” on Saturday morning with Steve and neither of us ordering pancakes.

John losing to his cousin, Kevin, in an epic ping pong match for the ages (see glorious action shots).