Black Friday Shopping...

And I'm not talking about the dash to the mall, or strip malls to do all the Christmas shopping... What I'm talking about is the quest for the perfect loaf of bread to accompany the left over turkey... There is nothing better than fresh good bread, with cold tasty turkey the day after!!

Thankfully, I was invited to my aunt and uncle's place in Myrtle Beach for the holiday. I can't ever remember a time when it was just me and them, no cousins or parents around. So I have to say I was a bit nervous. Family or not, we quite frankly don't know each other that well (mostly due to me 'running away' from western NY, hardly ever to return). But it was great. There's something to be said for the family bond, after a couple minutes, it was like I had spent every holiday, birthday and family occasion with them since childhood. I don't have many memories of my uncle that I like... As a child he was always very unattainable, and the uncle my brother and I were afraid of(kind of),,, but we never want him to yell at us! Funny thing is, as an adult, he had quite a bit to say, surprisingly interested in my current job situation; even went so far as to call his brother who lives in FL near where I am moving, to see if he could help me find a place when I'm ready to buy... Who would have thought????? Certainly not me! We then went on to discuss management philosophy and what works and what doesn't etc...I had noticed that he was working on a Sudoku puzzle after dinner, and was talking about how I had tried a few on line only to get very frustrated.. Asked if he had any special clues for working them out... Unfortunately the answer was no! When I got home, and was unloading the bag of left over goodies, there in the bag were several pages from his Sudoku book, carefully cut out and stapled together... I can't really explain it,, in fact it probably sounds silly,,, but that little act summed up the Thanksgiving and Christmas ideals all in one... It was seemed as though he and I have finally found the common ground, and to think it only took 40 years!!

Although I can't imagine ever moving back to western NY... The older I get the more acutely aware I become of the things I have missed out on by making the decisions I have made... This Thanksgiving, it was only my aunt, uncle and myself,,, but I still left feeling as though I had spent the day with 'the family'.....