Another Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving break began at Wednesday, November 23 at 11:50 AM. We had a half day of school on that Wednesday. Our van driver illegally treated us to McDonalds for lunch. The rest of the afternoon I did homework, and for a good reason. At 5:45 PM I had dinner of a roast beef hoagie. I finished it at 6 PM and thus began my annual 22-hour pre-thanksgiving fast. It would be 24 hours, but my parents make me eat dinner. I do this every year for two main reason. The first and foremost reason is so that when the big Thanksgiving meal comes, I understand how thankful I am that the Lord provides food for me. The second reason is so that I can eat more of the big meal. At night we had Thanksgiving Eve service. It was a combination of two congregations: Frederick and Perkiomenville (both Mennonite churches).

Every year we go to Connecticut (where both sides of my extended family live) for Thanksgiving weekend. It use to be Thursday to Monday, but since most of my father's side died, and there is no longer really a reason to hang around longer, it is now Thursday to Saturday. We left Thursday morning at 10:30 AM. I wanted to leave 9 AM so we get there in time to watch the whole 1 PM football game, but that was unsuccessful. This was the first time we went up in our new car, a 2002 Toyota Camry. I was worried I would be squished and uncomfortable (we use to go up in a minivan, and I would take up a whole row), but to my surprise I had enough room to be comfortable, although I had less room than before.

The car ride up is the same distance and time as the car ride back. One-way is three hours, so a round-trip wound be six hours. Yes, a total of six hours in the car (altough it was on two separte days). Usually one would do homework (like my sister did), but like I said, I made sure all my homework was done. So what did I do? Quizzing of course! I worked on my quizzing questions. I am running out of time (see end of post) and needed to get them done. In the duration of the car time, I got done 8 verses and 52 questions. So as of now, I have 18 of 55 verses in Luke 2 done. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. I just hope I get it done in time.

We arrived at 2 PM because of a bit of holiday traffic. Immeadiately I ran to the game. I only missed the first quarter and half of the second, so it wasn't too bad. But Atlanta was already up 17-0 with 100+ yards rushing, so I thought I missed a lot. I was happy that I got to watch the rest of the game, plus the second game. My uncle arrived an hour later. I greeted him with, "Hey, it's my favorite uncle, Uncle Rob!" His reply, "Alright, what is it that you want for Christmas, tens and twenties?" [An allusion from A Charlie Brown Christmas, when Sally asks Santa for tens and twenties, reffering to cash]. Yeah, that's what it came down to, something for Christmas. Since for my birthday, my parents got my tickets for Spamalot, tickets to an Eagles game, and sent me to the NYLC, my birthday present money ran over to my Christmas money, so I am getting nothing for Christmas. It comes down to what Uncle Rob gets me.

Well dinner was suppose to be at 4 PM, but Mom made it 5 PM. When she went to turn off her tea, she accidently turned off the over. So the dinner had another hour to cook. For dinner we had potatoes, yams, spinach, green beans, stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce, and for the main dish....TURDUNCAN!!!...well, minus the duck part. My grandmother decided that a whole turkey was too much money and work, so she decided to make turkey breast and chicken legs. I broke my fast by eating a whole serving of everything, than after finishing that, having a second serving of everything again! Then desert came and I ate two slices of both pumpkin and apple pie. The night finished off by watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (why can I relate to that kid so many times?!), Survivor and the Apprentice.

Friday morning and afternoon was pretty boring. I had a serving of all Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch (totally three servings for both Thursday and Friday). I went on to finish the Spinach, yams, and mashed potatoes. My family finished the pumpkin. Yeah, pretty much just sat around, read comics, watched TV. My grandparents have like 100 movie channels, so I went from watching one movie to the next.

Friday night was the Holcomb side (my father's side) of the reunion. We see them less than the Pagano side (my mother's side). They came from distant parts of the New England to meet us all together. I got an even rarer appearance of my second cousin, first removed two year old cousin Shiela (I just call her cousin for short). We hardly see her, so it appears like she grows up so fast. On top of that, she can't remember who anyone in my family is. I asked her to say my name, and she gave a blank stare of confusion. Her mother (my first cousin) showed her a picture of Yoda and she asked, "Who's that?!" Loudly Shiela shrieked, "YODA!!!!" Yes, my baby cousin knows Yoda better me or anyone else in my family. We had pizza for dinner. I had 3 pepperoni slices and two cans of Coke (and after eating all those leftovers, I feel like a fat pig). That was followed our traditional game of Trivial Pursuit. That's always fun. We had two games, and my team won both of them.

Saturday, we got up late, stopped by my grandparent's house to say goodbye, then left for home. On the way we stopped at Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. I had the ULTIMATE COLOSSAL BURGER!!! Mmmm, 3 lbs of beef...I ate the whole thing. I'm interested to see how much weight I've gained over the vacation.

After this post, I'm gonna go back to telling you about the NYLC. I still have so much I want to tell you about it!!

(Unofficial) Countdown to the first quizmatch of 2006:
1 month, 2 weeks, 1 day

NYLC Episode 1: The Talent show

My trip is over. I have returned from a foreign land...Washington, D.C. Actually, I've been back since Sunday afternoon. Between football and school, I haven't been able to tell you of many many adventures. There are so many as well. So for the next week, I will break it down into daily episodes (or as daily as I can get), so read previous entries if you miss one and keep comments on the right one.

On Thursday evening, we had a talent show. Scholars would sign up and show off a talent they had. Some were serious, some were funny. The funny ones consist of a dramatic reading about tuna fish and a comical song about traffic lights. There were singers & dancers. After seeing the girl dancers, many guys wanted to dance with them at the Dinner and Dance. There was also a Be-Bop, and that was cool. My favorite was the last. Dean Grenfeld, a fellow classmate from Christopher Dock, got together a bunch of guys for the show. They danced to the a remix of the Spice Girls. They decided to call themselves The Spice Boys. It was hillarious. I will never stop laughing. I have pictures of it. I posted them on my locker and now will give them to you. There is 10, so they'll take a while to load. WARNING: THESE PICTURES MAY HURT YOUR EYES!!!!