Thanksgiving

Jeff has been battling pneumonia since early November, and I was wondering if he was going to feel up to having extra people in our house.

My parents come up the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and stay through the weekend. Mama and I do some shopping. Daddy finds something to do around the house. And Biscuit is just overwhelmed with the attention he gets!

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my brother and his family come up, and we do our big Thanksgiving meal at lunchtime. So Thursday isn't really like a holiday for us.

Plus this year, Jeff was battling pneumonia, and Biscuit and I both had colds. I actually called Mama and gave them the option not to come, just in case we were contagious. They said they would risk it, and I was glad.

When we got up Thursday morning, Mama asked, "Are there any restaurants open today?"

I told her there were, and she suggested we go out for lunch. It felt a little weird going out on Thanksgiving, but the way I was feeling that morning, I was in no shape to cook.

The restaurant I picked is a home-cooking restaurant that is open every day of the year. So they had their regular menu, plus a few Thanksgiving specials. Daddy got chicken tenders with a side salad and mac and cheese. Mama got country-style steak, mac and cheese and lima beans. Biscuit got a cheeseburger and fries. I got chicken souvlaki, mac and cheese and fried okra (I joked about my meal being Mediterranean meets the South.). Jeff was the only one who got a Thanksgiving meal. He had turkey-dressing-cranberry sauce meal.

The restaurant was packed, and our server (Steven) apologized two or three times about making us wait. Apparently, the owner didn't expect so many people, so he only had a couple of servers for the whole restaurant.

We told him we weren't in a hurry and that he could just get to us as soon as he could. And I swear, I think us saying that made him hurry even more!

Steven took all our drink orders, and Biscuit asked for sweet tea with no lemon. He said "please" and "thank you," and apparently, that was a big deal to our server. 

"Can I please have sweet tea with no lemon?" Biscuit asked. "Thank you."

To which Steven replied, "I gotcha, big man." Then he winked at Biscuit.

When he came back to get the food orders, Biscuit ordered his food. And again, the server made a big fuss.

Now don't get me wrong, I love when people make a fuss over my boy. But restaurant servers mostly seem surprised when he acts like a normal person - behaving, ordering his own food, not making a mess, etc. But what that says to me is that there are a whole lot of wild children who don't know how to behave in public!

About halfway through the meal, the server walked back by to check on us.

"How's the burger, big man?" Steven asked Biscuit.

Biscuit had a mouthful of said burger, so he just smiled and nodded.

"You like chocolate cake, big man?" the server asked Biscuit.

And Biscuit nodded again.

So on his next trip by our table, Steven dropped off a big hunk of chocolate cake. Biscuit's eyes lit right up!

When Biscuit finished his food, he slid the cake over in front of him.

"I think I need to do this the proper way," Biscuit said and grabbed a knife in one hand and a fork in the other. He proceeded to eat his cake with the knife and fork.

He did a good job. He didn't drop a crumb.
Of course, that could be because it tasted so good!

When we got home that evening, we took part in another tradition and watched a cartoon special.

Sick or not, it was nice to hang out together. And it was especially nice to see Biscuit snuggled up with Mama and Daddy on the couch with two or three blankets covering the three of them.