It's been completely grey and chilling all day; a good day to stay in under a blanket and do nothing. Which is pretty much what I've been doing, albeit a good room cleaning and a late afternoon run. 
 The house is suddenly very very quiet. My sisters were here all this past week and both had to leave yesterday, which makes me wonder if it would be easier to get used to them gone if they left gradually. "At least we have you, Rach," my Mum said on the way to my Aunt's house for Thanksgiving. It's not as though I'm getting ready to leave, but hearing that reminds me of how hard it'll still be for me when the time comes. 
  Thanksgiving was really nice- we went all out, and everything was vegetarian. Everyone says things like "Oh, your poor dad," because he's the only non-vegetarian in the group of 5 (including my sister's boyfriend), but he's a good sport. But isn't it amazing how all the time you put into preparation can pretty much be scarfed down in 15 minuites? We started eating at 3:00, and were sitting around the table with empty plates at 3:15, complementing each other and/or groaning due to food overdose. Afterwards, my dad and sister & I went for a hike in the woods and looked around for a good place to put the beehive we intend to get. We had to talk loud over the crunching of leaves, but eventually found a pretty perfect place my dad found. It's by a big tree with a hollow middle that my sisters & I used to stand up when we were little (!), right next to a nearby creek and a cornfield. The idea of a beehive is exiting for us- we hoping that we can get a jar of honey and maybe be able to make beeswax goodies like Burt's Bees, but Sarah is afraid that we'll get swarmed, stung & dead. I'm a bit more optimistic. Anyways, afterthat we came across this spot were there were all these vines that were low to ground and looked like swings, right next to one another. So my sister & I sit in them & start talking like we're little British children and laughing. "Oh look, this delightful tree has little swings on it! Ah ha,ahahaha." And right in the middle of our merry British laughter a branch falls & hits Sam on the head. We pause. And then we crack up. It was hilarious!!! I tried not to laugh and made sure she was alright, but it was just too funny. "I'm alright... I'd laugh if it happened to you." (She would!)
The rest of the day was pretty nice as well. My sisters & I squished in my bed & drank mulled wine and watched a Garfield Halloween and a Garfield Thanksgiving (do the mashed potato! do the candied yam!) 
So all in all, it was a nice Thanksgiving.

The feast was magnificent, I must say. The menu consisted of these faux turkey nuggets with stuffing built into the nugget (I'm not even kidding, it was amazing), faux turkey with delicious mushroom gravy (I love you, Whole Foods), brocholli caserole, my seven layer salad, rolls, cranberry sauce, Sam's sweet pototoes, green fluffy stuff, Tyler's amazing mac&cheese, and dessert and cider. SO GOOD! I had an interesting conversation with Tyler, that I found quite funny. "Rachel, would you say that your family is nice to each other 100% of the time?" I look at Sarah, confused. "Maybe 99% of the time. How come you ask?" "Well do you think that's normal?" I ponder. I haven't really thought about it, ever. Do you think it's normal?" "No. Not really. I'm just worried you guys are going to have unreachable standards. Like you're going to date someone, go to their family's house for holidays and find all these fighting people and be like "WHAT IS THIS!?!?" Hmm...Hope that doesn't happen. =) Oh well, I don't think being unusually nice is too bad of a thing to be.