Thanksgiving in California, 2025

Posted on 2511.28 by BlogPatty

By Patty Wilber

My parents have been hosting Thanksgiving at their house in California with friends and family, and friends who have become family for….I don’t know….50 years?

Over the last 10 or 15 years, it has also become a reunion for our immediate family! My brother and his family come down from Washington state. My sister and her family live close to my folks. Our son and his family come from Tennessee, and our daughter and her family fly in from Hawaii. How many times can I use family in two paragraphs?  What are synonyms of family? The Oxford indicates brood, menage, household, and nuclear family…and apparently, after getting up at 3:30 am, I am too tired on Thanksgiving evening to be very creative!

This year, our daughter, who is an attorney, wasn’t going to come since she had a trial.  Because she wasn’t coming, our son wasn’t coming, either. (We had spent a week with Mark and family in September!)

Then, about two weeks ago, the trial got rescheduled, so Maegan got tickets for her whole menage, and since she was coming, Mark decided to fly his brood over as well. Suddenly, we were back to a full house (household?)!

Almost everyone is staying at my sister’s place. There are seven girls–my sister’s two (19 and 17), and five littles aged 8, 7, 6, 2, and 2.5 belonging to Maegan (daughter), Mark (son), and my brother! It is a bit chaotic, but so fun to see them interact. We will get to visit with Maegan’s three and our niece again in Hawaii over Christmas break! If we just add my sister and Mark, we could really rock the islands!

We have the same routine every Thanksgiving. Feast with households (he he using my synonyms!) and friends on Thursday, hike on Friday, and chow down on dim sum on Saturday.  The hike used to be a straight-up hike, but we’ve modified a bit since we have kids of varying ages, plus the slowed-down-ness of whoever is slowed down in a given year with illness or injury or age.

Most of us will head home on Sunday!

Who knows how much longer we will all be able to do this, so I am savoring and grateful this time!

Happy day after Thanksgiving! Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!

About BlogPatty

Here's the skinny: I have a thing for horses. They make sense to me. I have a small horse training business (it's a "boutique" training business, not because it's super fancy, but because the horses get a lot of personal attention). I also go by Dr. Wilber, and teach biology full-time at a Central New Mexico Community college.
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2 Responses to Thanksgiving in California, 2025

  1. Kathy Davies says:
    2511.29 at 09:39

    So so grateful that the family continues to convene! Love you, big sis!

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