I came home from work to the Macy’s parade on television. 

There are still gourds decorating the house. 

I did the chores in a downpour, had lunch and then made stuffing with dog show on.

I made Williams-Sonoma sausage, corn bread and chestnut dressing using our sausage, herbs and chicken broth. I had made the corn bread using Kenyon’s stone ground corn meal, our eggs and our lard. We then loaded up and headed to my stepdad and mom’s home.

There we watched football, talked and finished getting dinner ready.

My brother, his partner, my niece and her husband were also there. My brother had been doing some restoration work on two toy boats we had pulled from the family cabin in case of fire.

He found out that they were built by Tillicum Toys from Tacoma between 1927 and 1930. Four generations in our family have played with these toys.

So then the table was set and ready for dinner.

We had a lovely meal and conversation. It was so incredibly nice to have a holiday meal with my family again. I have missed it.