Thanksgiving:
1. Got up early and was able to cook (by myself) the two dishes we took to dinner at a friend's. No interruptions (except when I needed garlic) and no bumping into anyone else (except the cats). Dishes - sweet potato casserole made with oranges, rum, pecans, butter and brown sugar; and wild and brown rice stuffing - turned out well, though we brought leftovers of them home, which we cannot eat, since we're now back on the low-carb diet.
2. Listened to Alice's Restaurant on WXPN, a Thanksgiving staple. When we used to drive up to my aunt's for dinner, we would try to time the drive so that we could listen to this on the way up. Yesterday, it was me and cats in the kitchen. They did not look amused.
3. Dinner at a friend's with her (largely silent, though not unpleasantly so) in-laws and other family and friends and kids and dogs and cats. No family drama, no tense words, nobody drank too much. Way too much food and a promise that dinner will be served in courses next year rather than all at once.

Movies:
1. A Christmas Story, with Darren McGavin. A traditional favorite with me during this season. None of the sappiness of It's a Wonderful Life, but the same sense of the importance of family.

2. Suddenly, Last Summer. Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Hepburn. Have not finished this yet. Score is enormously distracting. Was surprised to see Gore Vidal as the co-author of the screenplay, along with Tennessee Williams. Set back in the horrific old days when frontal lobotomies were the new hope for "curing" those will all manner of mental distress.