Happiness is....

....getting brownie points with just a phone call. Huh? I don't get it you say? Here's the deal. I called Aunt B and invited her and Uncle B to Thanksgiving Dinner at my house. They can not join us as they had already accepted another invitation (which I kind of expected), but I scored major brownie points with Aunt B just for inviting them. And, since, if they had come, they would have pushed us to the limit space-wise, it's a win-win. I get the brownie points, but I don't have to worry about a crowded table. It should be noted that when Aunt B was the new wife (Uncle B is Mom's brother) she didn't do enough inviting of The Aunts to her house and they didn't like her for it. When I refer to "The Aunts" I mean my mother's bunch of aunts - and they were a bunch. My grandmother was the oldest of 8, 6 girls 2 boys. They were quite the group. A large boisterous Irish family was maybe a bit difficult for Aunt B - she was an only child from a much quieter family. I can see how inviting The Aunts would be a bit - um - scary? I mean - these are people who had a fight over who was the youngest. And it was a water fight. They were in their 40s & 50s - well except for Mary, who was the youngest, she was 39. One more thing to say about The Aunts - and The Uncles. One of my mother's cousins once said to her mother "Your mother raised two sane children, and you weren't one of them." Truer things are rarely said.