In which Crimson finishes ...

... the post she started in Buddhism. Apologies to all who noticed the lack of posting over the holiday. Today's the first day I've had any real contact with a computer since last Tuesday.

I got to spend last Thursday with thirty-nine of my closest relatives. Actually, no. I only knew fourteen of them - the other chunk, which I can't really call a half because there are so many of them, is part my grandma's previous marriage. I don't really know the "other chunk" that well. We rarely see them. Most of them live out-of-state, anyway. Some of them came all the way from Florida, Montana, and California. That's a long-ass drive.

So, since there was no way we'd have been able to fit forty people comfortably in my grandparents' house [although it's quite large], my grandpa decided to use the community room that's located out by the grain elevators, where of course the air reeks of rotten corn. [Keep in mind that the town they live in, Albert City, is very small and has a motto "How Swede it is." I was going to take a picture for proof, but I never got around to it. They have one of those dala horses, too. It's gi-normous.]

And we ate. There was a twenty-two-pound turkey, lots of hamballs, two different batches of green bean casserole, and cinnamon applesauce ... along with about a million other things. We didn't eat until about two, due to the tardiness of the cabbage. I did not partake of the cabbage, but plenty of others did - you could smell it in the air later as they were ... digesting it. [Yuck.]

I also played a new card game, Quiddler, which is loads of fun. You get to make words and get high scores and stuff. I liked it so much that I made my mom get me the game, even though she was going to get one anyway to have at our house. I thought it would be a good game for us college peoples.

All in all, it was a good time. I slept on a bed for only one night, and in the living room for the rest of the time. I bought the new Harry Potter because I thought I needed to, but I fell asleep while I was watching it the night before I left. I didn't bring it back, because my brother Matt helped pay for it. I thought I'd be nice for once.

The only thing I bought on the gigantor shopping day after Thanksgiving was a lot of yarn. It was on sale, and I am a slave to fibers. I also splurged and purchased two knitting magazines, Cast On and Vogue's new Knit 1. Let it be known that I am a yarn ho.