So here we are, the season where holidays are stacked up on each other. (On top of that, I've had two snow days from work...whoohoo!!) It's a time where families get together and have fun (or too much togetherness), talk about growing up, tradition and all that other stuff. Unless your like us. We are transplants into the Pacific Northwest and our families are scattered across the states--Kansas, Virginia, Illinois, Las Vegas...). We'd travel, but quite honestly, the airports suck at the holidays (and I'm really in no hurry to have some TSA's hands groping me or submitting myself to low level radiation scans--I'm already unhealthy enough as it is, thanks though for the offer) and we have too many pets and no one to watch them while we're gone anyway.

I have to say, it's kinda nice with it just being "us", especially when I hear others talk about all the family drama that seems to go on during the holidays. No Unlce Joe getting drunk and ruining dinner. No cat fights between aunts. No arguing over who made better sweet potatoes or who burned the turkey. But, mind you, we still will have drama....just a different sort:

Me: "I don't see the point in making a whole turkey when no one eats it."
Hubby: "It's Thanksgiving, you have to eat turkey! I can't help it if no one in this family eats leftovers."
Me: "We don't like turkey to begin with. Why would we want leftovers."
Hubby: "Because it's Thanksgiving. You have to eat leftovers."

Yes, my husband's answer to everything is "Because it's Thanksgiving, you HAVE to {insert topic of choice} . Needless to say, he always wins. This year, it's a whole turkey deep fried. Fortunately, he's doing it at work so there's no clean up involved on my part...whoopee!

Here's another family drama:

16 yr old son: "Are there any dinner rolls left?"
Me: "You at 12 of them at dinner. Your sister, dad and I each had two. There's none left"
16 yr old son : But it's Thanksgiving. You're supposed to have leftover dinner rolls!"

Do you see the family resemblance here? By the way, my son is 6'3" and weighs 120 lbs. He has a metabolism similar to the speed of light. He eats 12 dinner rolls and loses two pounds. I eat 12 dinner rolls and it goes straight to my ass.

Other frequent Thanksgiving holiday scenarios in my my holiday life:

The 19 year old daughter will whine incessantly about being soooooo bored because none of her friends are available to entertain her. Her father will inevitably make a suggestion that maybe she should entertain herself by working on her college application and she'll stomp off in a fit. At this point, she will entertain herself by picking on her brother. And that never ends well.

One of the dogs (probably the PITA dog) will get a hold of something and either yack it back up or stink up the room to the point of immediate human evacuation from the vicinity of dog(s). I'm sure there will be a cat fight somewhere in the house and fur will fly.

Oh, and by the way, this year my dishwasher is broken so all dishes will have to be done by hand. By me, most likely. (okay, that was my moment of whining).

After dinner, well argue over how many Christmas decorations to put up and where to put the five dozen Santa statues my husband has collected over the years.

So, overall, pretty benign sort of drama than others who have large families. Maybe I miss it a little, then again, probably not. After all, Christmas is only a few weeks away and we'll have more drama again just so I don't miss it too much.