Quiet is good, too.

Hard though it is for me to believe,  this beautiful woman is my twin brother's GRANDAUGHTER!  I made a fish hat for her mom, and now everyone in the family wants one. The blonde bombshell here wants pink.  Her sister wants blue.

Her big brother, who looks just like his grandpa,and will look great in this warm and rustic wool and alpaca stocking hat.  I may knit him a fish hat for fun, but young men usually don't have the strength of character to wear playful hats.  Except maybe for Jayne.  From Firefly.

"If you saw a man walking down the street wearing that hat, you would say, 'He's not afraid of anything!' "

Thanksgiving was nice and quiet for us.  There was a frosty sunrise, then a slow, peaceful day.  Well, almost peaceful.  I got a call that my oldest bro is in the hospital with appendicitis.  He's inHonolulu with his daughter, so he couldn't be in better hands.  She will make him mind the doctor,take all his pills on time, and get up and walk, even if it does hurt.  She's a wonder!

At 4 in the afternoon, DH and I got dressed up and headed downtown for our 5:30 dinner reservations. I had wild scallops with basil risotto. DH had the classic turkey dinner.  We shared a slice of pie, and cruised on back home.  No dishes to wash, no family drama, no hangovers, no repercussions.  I LOVE a quiet family holiday.

And then, Black Friday.  My Australian friends have been wondering what all this Black Friday stuff is about, since as far as they know, it's the Friday before Easter.  It's sort of hard for me to explain, seeing as how I won't play.  Trying to explain BlackFriday sales that start at 8PM Thursday night, or "Door Buster" sales that have people sitting outside a store for 72 hours in order to be the first in line for a $200 flat-screen TV.  Trying to explain fistfights at Toys-R-Us when the store runs out of the must-have item of the  season.  I think I'm becoming adrenalin intolerant.  I really don't WANT to shove in with the masses and experience the unnecessary roughness of full-contact, hand-to-hand shopping.

There are stores without so much madness.  Costco, right after opening, anywhere but the electronics department was a cruise-through.  Petco wasn't bad at all.  We were going to a little alterations shop where DHfound me my very favorite tote bag, but they weren't open, so we went next door and visited the Asian grocery store.  It was fascinating!  There were lots of people there doing their weekly shopping, but they were tolerant of tourists like us, lollygagging along and being flummoxed by the packaging.  "Pickled mustard in a plastic bag? It looks like half a cabbage." "Dried shredded squid?  For the kids' lunch boxes?"  "Want a can of quail eggs?"  There were live lobsters and fishes in tanks, vegetables and fruit of mysterious sizes and colors, noodles made of everything from wheat to corn starch, and bags of eye-searingly brightly colored candies.  If you get a can of Cambodian boiled peanuts from me, you know where it came from.  We went in to kill time and came out with $30 worth of groceries.

Other quiet stores this time of year are drug stores and hardware stores.  I try to get all my shopping done by Thanksgiving, but somehow, the year slipped up on me when I wasn't looking.  I usually mail my Christmascards today.  Not gonna happen this year.  I still have to write the sucker.  And as for the holiday rum balls - it's time to get those started, too.

Well, the holidays will come, whether I'm ready or not.  And we will all enjoy them to the fullest, because we are just that kind of people.  If you're in the area, come to our party at the Monaco Hotel from 1 till 5 on the 30th.  There will be singing!