(AF) A Thanksgiving Circus - part 2

Okay, so dinner is finally nearing being ready, and none too soon. A few people had had the bright idea to bring in an array of booze, are using it for appetizers on empty tummies, and unplanned entertainment is about to begin if we don't eat soon. One or two are beginning to feel p-r-e-t-t-y good at this point. Nearly everyone is lending a hand, anxiously trying to get it all on the table. Even one of the young kids is busy away stuffing eggs and celery. The rest of the kids are doing their part sampling the pickles and olives to make sure they are fit for everyone to eat. But wait .... where is SIL?

She doesn't like her hubby's family, feels she is far too good to associate with any of us, and from the moment she had entered the house, she had parked herself in the most recessed corner of the couch, head tightly downward as she closed all of us out, thumbs flying non-stop as she focused on her cell phone (yes, she had kids she as suppose to be watching). And there she sat for the afternoon, never looking at any of us, never joining into any of our conversations, and never uttering a single word to any of us. This is normal for her, she rarely, if ever, speaks to any of us (us women, anyway). Even if they are staying there for a spell.... nope, not a word to us. 

Dinner is finally ready (3 pm), everyone races to the kitchen to mound up their plates .... except .... you guessed it ... SIL. She just continues to sit there, hunkered down in her corner of the couch, thumbs twiddling with her phone. Everyone is eating, talking, laughing, enjoying their food and good conversation (course, I could have stood to wear a pair of wadding boots for some of the topics, lol, but I chose to just shake my head a little, laugh to myself, and keep peace) ...... and SIL just continues on with her thumb twiddling, hilarious and sad at the same time.
Everyone finishes eating, continues conversations for awhile, finally has dessert .... but SIL.... no, no dessert, either. She is still twiddling. Her neck had to be getting sore by then from holding her head down so hard in her effort to shut all of us out.

Little did we know, but right after we started fixing our plates, we had another Earthquake (3.7). I guess that was to assist with shaking our food down in our tummies so we could eat more. We have been feeling those quakes that size, but everything was so chaotic, noisy, and attentions focused on finally eating, that no one noticed, nor heard, the Earthquake. We have been having a lot of small ones all month - some quakes, some aftershocks (and for months past), and we don't usually feel most of them, but that size is usually obvious. (Oklahoma's last 30 days of Earthquake activity)

So everyone is sitting around, hanging out, visiting, making an extra effort to get along, having coffee, tea, drinks, reading through the Black Friday ads, and nibbling on a few more bites of the foods we especially liked. Son 2 has to leave, and Mr. & Mrs. Neighbors and one of their kids finally arrives. Suddenly, SIL is standing, alert, energetic, AND found her voice! It was exactly what most of us expected, but how quickly she came to life was still mouth-dropping funny. Guess I better back up a little so you understand. For the past couple of years, Mr. & Mrs. Neighbor lived next door to Host before they moved to another house. Brother and SIL became the best of friends with Neighbors. And it didn't take us women long to realize that SIL has the hots for Mr. Neighbor. For the longest, each of us suspected it, but kept it to ourselves. Then one day someone mentioned it and the rest said, "Okay, so I'm not the only one that noticed that. It is totally obvious, isn't it!" She does everything she can to get close to him .... asking him to drop stuff off to her at work, having to step over to his house while wifey is at work to get something she "accidentally" left over there, repeatedly having him come over to 'help her' with something she just can't do on the computer, conveniently having to use the laptop on the couch where he has to sit close, instead of the desktop, wearing 'sexy' attire when he is going to be around (eewww), and the obvious list goes on, and on, and on. Poor Brother doesn't seem to have a clue .... yet. Mrs. Neighbor may have caught on because this time, she made sure she sat next to her husband and close, between SIL and Mr. Neighbor. And Mr. Neighbor (currently serving a deferred, felony sentence and stays sloshed much of his off-work time), seems to be totally oblivious to what is going on, which makes SIL work even harder at getting his attentions, which gets pretty entertaining at times.

Okay, so Mr. & Mrs. Neighbor just walked in, and SIL found her legs, energy and voice. Mrs. Neighbor stopped in the living room to say her hellos and visit a moment, while Mr. Neighbor went to the kitchen to deposit the dishes they had brought, SIL following closely behind to 'help' him. She eagerly began chatting with him and telling him how good this food and that food was and made a point to tell him which desserts she had made and brought. She grabbed the plates, handed him one, took herself one, then her energy obviously dropped as Mrs. Neighbor walked in and she handed her a plate. Mr. Neighbor asked, "Haven't you all eaten yet?" I couldn't resist, I spoke up and said, "All of us except her have eaten." He looked so darned puzzled! She hadn't even eaten with her own husband and kids, she had waited to eat with Mr. Neighbor! 

So everyone is eating, nibbling and chatting, but not quite all together. Half of us or so are trying to visit with everyone. SIL only visited with Brother and the Neighbors, and the Neighbors visited only with Brother, SIL, and Son 1, ignoring the rest of us. I think maybe they did say a couple of words at one point to Host. The air is chilling down, kids are wound up from desserts and over stimulation and keep running in and out and holding the door open to talk to each other, which is typical and expected of kids at this point. But that ended up letting little dogs run in. As three of them darted in and ran down the hallway to check out the excited giggles in the kids' room, Mr. Neighbor finally spoke to me. He glared at me and, words slurred from too much 'sauce', said, "Dogs stink!" I just shrugged my shoulders, smiled, and went on down the hall to make sure the kids weren't eating something the dogs would grab. Although I had been immediately catching the dogs and putting them back out, on that note, Cousin B and I decided it was time to let our Fur Balls stay in for a bit and take a nap in our laps. 

to be continued . . . . .