#but even from mix gingerbread is kind of a multi-day effort so everyone Expects things (cookies) at the end of it

[405blazeitt]

apparently the family thanksgiving/christmas gatherings were full of drama that i didn't know about because i was ~2-12, but i do miss going to the grocery store with a big chunk of the family. and i didn't get to help a ton with preparing the food on the big day, but on the days before or after i'd make bacon and potato pie with my great grandmother's nurse or lemonade using lemons from the tree in the backyard with my grandma (this was southern california, so there were lemons).

unfortunately, it was also a miserable experience at times because the adults were busy with their drama, there was no one my age, and all the "kids" over a year older than me wanted nothing to do with me, so unless my younger cousins were there i'd be kinda on my own in a house full of people.

but what i've been seeing a lot via the internet is groups of friends doing thanksgiving together and doing that big grocery shopping trip together and preparing it all together, and that sounds like what i want to do. somehow, i need to make my way into one of these local-friend-group arrangements. i need to find a local group of friends and make them into my friends (and, if possible, bring in my current set of local introverted friends with whom i would struggle to arrange such a thing), so i can assist in cooking normal stuff while subjecting them to and/or making them help me with my various food experiments.

actually doing it is the hard part, but at least we've got a goal here.