Seattle

I think this is the smallest Thanksgiving we've ever done! There were only eight of us for dinner this year, although several others joined us later for games. The 20-somethings are out of college and on their own in Madison WI (our first Thanksgiving without D) and Brooklyn NY. Our aging parents don't travel as well as they used to, even across town. But smaller is a little less crazy in the dining room - we can actually all sit comfortably around the table. And smaller means the bird was less than 18lbs - not counting stuffing.

D joined the games via text, which I hope was as fun for him as for us. J shared her Apples to Apples cards with him and gave him some of the credit for her occasional small victories. At the same time, A set up a chess board on the floor and spent a couple of hours texting moves back and forth with D.

Seattle

For the 24th year in a row, we hosted Thanksgiving in Wallingford. Pretty much the same cast of characters showed up - although every year is a little different. A and B find us too loud and boisterous and have chosen to celebrate in a less draining setting. Some of the others must alternate between us and their own families and don't show up every year. But 12 seemed like a good number - enough to fill the place up, but not so many as to overwhelm the kitchen crew. Fortunately, everyone contributes food, so the workload isn't too bad. And the last three years or so, we've actually had one of those new-fangled dishwasher things.

I would like to note that most of this year's pictures were taken by M. She took more photos, better photos, and more photos of the food.

This year the crowd was split pretty sharply in the evening. We normally try not to let football dominate Thanksgiving, but with the Seahawks playing the 49ers, there was little choice, although a few of the more civilized members of our group (mainly female, I noticed) opted to play their own games instead. Funny, they were making more noise than those of us watching the football game! The Seahawks won 19-3, by the way.