Thanksgiving 2015

Happy Thanksgiving! A lot of things were going on this year. One was that we were hosting Thanksgiving for the first time ever! We were pretty clueless but kept it SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE. Kevin focused on the turkey and I made a lot of not-so-much-from-scratch sides. Okay, you gotta walk before you run, okay? We missed Kevin's family this year, but we drank mimosas in their honor.

Our Thanksgiving party in front of Mad Men fireplace.

Another thing was that we recently hit the 5-year anniversary of my dad passing from renal cell (kidney) cancer. So that was... weird. To describe it in some inexact language, it feels less like being stabbed in the heart repeatedly now, and more like a dull ache punctuated by sadness when I want to tell him something, or wish he could see the kids. I think I might have repressed how I felt this year, and it backlashed, especially since I sort of associate it with Thanksgiving.

But also, this year there is the gratitude that we're together. As I wrote about on the blog, in August 2013, my mother was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, the same kind of kidney cancer my dad had. It was contained in the kidney, so she had surgery in October 2013, to remove the kidney. But not on the blog previously-- in February of this year she found out the cancer had returned. This time she couldn't have surgery, because the tumors are just on blood vessels. And as we already knew because of my dad, chemo and radiation does not work on kidney cancer. She went on two different studies this year and ended up trying Sutent (the control drug), and Inlyta + Dalantercept, but neither helped. In September, they put her on a IV drug combo of Torisel and Avastin. Her November scan showed no progression and some shrinking of the tumors! Just as important, she has much milder side effects on this last drug combo so she can actually enjoy herself, and does. So I'm thankful we're together, and thankful that she feels well, and most of all thankful that she knows how to enjoy life.

Mom, James, me.

Miranda and her mom's boyfriend Bob

Crackers and cheese make her joyful!

Kevin made a PERFECT turkey. Because that's how he rolls.

Cheers!!

Turkey, Bob, and Pilgrim

Happy Thanksgiving! To family, friends, and good wine!

We did it! Table cloth, fancy napkins, and all the food!

I don't remember what they were so excited about.

The "Making Of" our first turkey that morning:

Looks like a turkey dance