Photo by Wilson Vitorino from Pexels
 

Part 25 of 29

Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Turkey day. No, not the day we eat the turkey but the day we get the turkey. Seems like a lot of fuss to get a turkey when the supermarket had piles of them in the freezer, but Eve swears it's worth the effort for a fresh organic turkey.

I don't suppose the turkey cares either way, so after breakfast we went out to the garage where Grandpa handed me the keys and told me that since I now had my shiny new license I was going to drive while he and Eve fooled around in the back seat.

The look on Mary Ann's face was priceless. I don't know if she was more worried about my driving or her Grandfather's lechery. There's a reason that Grandpa is the Liar-in-chief.

So I carefully backed the car out and, following Eve's directions, headed out of the city to the suburbs and then to the farms beyond the suburbs. Having spent almost all of my life in a small city, I always appreciated seeing the open country and the farms. I still think it's cool to see cows and horses just wandering around a field.

I didn't really know what to expect of a turkey farm, but what I found was a nice old house and several long, low aluminum sided buildings with these giant fans blowing fresh air into the interior. What I didn't see was any turkeys. Turns out they were mostly in the refrigerators or on a refrigerated truck bound for a warehouse somewhere.

That's how it works, I suppose. If you're going to eat a turkey you have to kill it first. If you raise them then you have to kill a lot of them. Sometimes reality is not so pretty.

Mary Ann drove back, and we were a bit subdued for a while. Eventually we started talking and threw off our nervousness at the reality of our food supply. Much easier to pick up a plastic wrapped piece of meat without thinking about the cow or pig it came from.
 

When we got home there was a strange car in the driveway; Eve's daughter Marissa and her family had made better time than they thought and beat us home. Naturally there was a massive hug-fest and Mary Ann and I weren't excluded. There followed the usual chaos of getting people settled, Marissa and husband Leo in the room I thought of as 'Sylvia's Closet' even though we had long since removed her clothes to my closet or the Goodwill.

The kids, Nichole and Ollie, piled their things in a corner of the rec room since the plan was to have all six of the younger generation sleep there. I use the word 'sleep' with some sardonic humor - did anyone expect six kids to do any sleeping until they were completely exhausted?

No sooner had the hubbub abated than Mary Ann's parents arrived and we did it all over again. They got the red room. It's a good thing Grandpa and Eve have a five bedroom house or Mary Ann and I might be sleeping on the couch for a couple of days.

Preparing dinner was interesting, as Mary Ann and I were subtly inspected by the newcomers. We all managed to work together in the kitchen to come up with something edible that agreed with all appetites. By the time the dishes were washed it looked like Mary Ann and I had passed inspection.

Around eight o'clock Eve and Grandpa took Eve's van to the airport to pick up her other daughter Vicky, who was flying in from somewhere in the Midwest. By ten the adults, which seemed to include Mary Ann and me, were settled in the living room and the kids were doing who-knows-what in the rec room.

Grandpa's daughter and her family would be arriving on Thanksgiving day since her husband Gary was a State Policeman and had to work on Wednesday.

The real surprise was that Eve's ex-husband, Keith, would be joining us for Thanksgiving dinner. Eve had said that she and her ex were on friendly terms, but she didn't talk about him much. I wonder how you can be friendly enough with someone you couldn't live with to invite them to dinner. Well, if Jesus said to love thine enemies, maybe I have something to learn from Eve and her ex.

That makes seventeen for dinner now, but who's counting?
 

I have plenty of time to write tonight while I'm waiting for the bathroom. One thing nobody thought of was how a whole houseful of people were going to share three bathrooms. One of those is in Grandpa and Eve's bedroom, one in the hall by the bedrooms and one off the rec room. If it's this bad tonight, we may be waiting in line until Saturday for a slot. I just hope nobody has any kind of intestinal distress or it could get ugly.

I'm really glad I have the glue-on forms so that I can be seen by all these strangers without having to wear a bra to the bath. Of course, hanging around in the hall in my bathrobe is rather daunting, but these people are now my family.

Feels strange to say that, but comforting.
 

Wednesday, November 27
When you plan a big dinner you don't just cook it all on the big day, you have to start early. Wednesday we baked several pies and I found out that rolling out a pie crust and managing to get on top of the pie in one piece is not so easy. The trick is to roll it out on a piece of cloth that has been liberally sprinkled with flour, then pick up the cloth and flip the whole thing over just so. It took me three tries to get it right, but I did do it. I was also covered in flour and was very glad Eve had an oversized apron available or I would have wrecked my dress.

The pumpkin pie was easier because it didn't have a top, but it also wasn't pumpkin. I learned that using squash is better since a squash has less water content than a pumpkin and makes a firmer pie. Most of the flavor comes from the spices, so it doesn't really matter much which one you use.

That brought up 'pumpkin spice' whatever that you see advertised all over the place. My culinary advisers told me that all the pumpkin spice flavor is from the spice - no pumpkin involved except for some ad-man's fertile imagination.

Who would have known?

I said something about my mother's Jello salad that we had every Thanksgiving and how I was going to miss it. Naturally the assembled brain trust immediately tried to figure out what was in it and how to make it. I knew there were walnuts and bananas in red Jello, and I remember Mom saying something about a can of cranberry sauce.

Before I knew what was happening someone had their laptop out and started Googling and darned if there wasn't the recipe out there in cyberland. It looked like Mom's Jello salad, all it needed was some chopped walnuts to make it like I remembered. My knuckles were threatened with mayhem if I sampled it and left a hole in the surface, though. There are some rather forceful women in this family.
 

Thursday, November 28
Lest you should get the impression that we women held exclusive domain over the kitchen, Grandpa and Uncle Martin (all the middle generation were aunts and uncles) were in the thick of things as well. I acquired a small shadow, cousin Linda (Gary and Alma's youngest - there will be a family tree test coming soon) seems to have decided I was her personal favorite aunt. I did what I could to have her help me in the kitchen. I've learned we should pass on what I've learned to the next generation!

She's six years old and cute as a bug. She knows it all too well and trades on it mercilessly, but she's too cute to get annoyed. Hint - don't ask a six year old to help you mix flour for biscuits - and be sure to wear a big apron if you do!

Even though I'd grown used to eating in a lady-like manner over the past months, it's hard to do so at Thanksgiving. I mean, you just have to try everything! Then when you've decided what the best stuff was you just have to get seconds.

I just may have to buy a sports bra and take up jogging to make up for that dinner. Maybe I'll abandon my skirts for elastic waist sweat pants, fashion be damned!

I'm impressed at how well both families got along together. Everyone pitched in to clean up and put away the leftovers, then we all gathered in the rec room and talked to each other.

The adults made sure the kids were included. Mary Ann and I, being smack in the middle between kid and adult, were in that funny spot where you're not sure where you stand. We played with the kids while the adults looked on and we spent time talking to the adults as equals! A far cry from my extended family, where children are expected to listen and not speak unless spoken to.

The other thing that impressed me is that everybody accepted that Mary Ann and I were a couple. Period. Not even a raised eyebrow. Sure, we got some discrete questions, but the questions were because the people were interested in who these new women in the family were.

Somewhere in the general conversation, Grandpa let slip the date of their wedding. (As if it were accidental, right!) They had decided to get married on New Year's Eve at the Liar's Club New Year's Party. After all, most of their friends were members so it made sense.

Once again chaos reigned. By the time the congratulations waned we got Grandpa to tell us how they met, with Eve doing the color commentary.

While both Grandpa and Eve had grown up and raised families here, they were on opposite sides of the town so their children didn't really know each other.

Grandpa and Eve had met when he married Sylvia, Eve was Sylvia's maid of honor and best friend. Eve and her husband Keith had split after their children were grown but remained friends. When Sylvia got sick Eve was able to be there to help her best friend make it through her terminal illness.

It was almost like a romance novel, the two of them were thrown together as they cared for Sylvia, and eventually found love after enough time had passed.

It was an awkward romance at first, but Grandpa is nothing if not ready to shatter old traditions. They lived together for several years until Grandpa proposed the same evening as Mary Ann proposed to me.

Romantic, eh? Just one of many family stories told that night. I wished I could have told how my obsession with bras had ended up with me and Mary Ann as an ostensible lesbian couple, but we had decided that some things were best left unsaid no matter how liberal the family might be. The truth had to come out sometime, but there was no hurry.

As Grandpa says, knowing where to stop is half the battle when telling a story.

So I'm gonna stop right here!
 

Thursday, December 12
What do I get Mary Ann for Christmas? I'm trying to be frugal with the college funds I have in the bank, it does have to last me long enough to get a degree and college isn't cheap. I'm going to apply for every scholarship I can find but still… I can't say just how blessed I am to have Grandpa and Eve willing to have us live with them while we study, there is no way we could survive without their kindness.

Mary Ann and I have found things for Grandpa and Eve but what to get for Mary Ann? There's always new clothes, but I want her present to be special. Funny how when I thought I was a boy I hated getting clothes for Christmas or my birthday. I don't quite understand why getting clothes as a girl should be so exciting - I'm still me, but I guess I really have changed. A lot.

Just look in the mirror. Duh!

Which isn't getting me any closer to finding a gift.
 

Friday, December 13
My session with Audrey is a week early since next week is exams. Actually, we didn't talk about the gender issues much as things have been going well. I was a little worried about exams, but she reassured me that all students get worried no matter how good they are.

I talked with her about going home for Christmas and what might happen if my father caused any problems. I hoped that I could see my mother and sister without causing problems, but my main worry was what my friends would think of me as I am now.

So we talked strategies and how to approach various people in different ways. How would my friends react? How would I handle people who didn't know me well but felt they had to make comments on my personal life?

Basically she said to be myself and don't apologize. Explain if people will listen, don't allow anyone to get too personal and remember how right it feels to be who I am.

I just hope I can remember it all and remain calm.

Then Audrey blew my mind.

"Angel, as far as I can tell, you've made it through the semester without anyone knowing you're trans except the administration. That, my friend, is remarkable.

"I think you know just how close to the line I've been skating as both a friend and your therapist. I've never done anything like that before and I doubt I ever will again; I just hope the medical society doesn't get wind of the whole thing.

"Now, I've never known you as anything but a lovely young woman, and I find it hard to imagine you as a boy or even a man, which I think you realize is rather unusual. Of all the transgendered clients I have had you seem to be the most well adjusted and content in my experience. Perhaps it's because I knew you as a person before Earle sent you to see me that I've let the line slip.

"In any case, since you are not contemplating either hormone therapy or genital reassignment, I feel confident that breast augmentation would be in your best interest even though you have not lived as a woman for the usual year. Even if you do decide to revert, implants are fairly easy to remove without a lot of adverse impact.

"So whenever you're ready, I have a list of several surgeons in the area that you can talk to to arrange your implants, and may you be as pleased by them as you think you will be."

Talk about your early Christmas presents! When I told Mary Ann she was as excited as I was. Now all we have to do is talk to the doctor and figure out how to pay for it all.

And no, I haven't forgotten Mary Ann's offer to pay for them, but I still wonder if it's asking too much.
 

Sunday, December 15
Exams coming up this week. I'm pretty confident I'll do well, but there is always that little doubt niggling at you. Not that I've been idle, studying, buying Christmas presents, decorating the house. That and going crazy waiting for an opportunity to call those doctors about my implants.

I did buy some small presents for my parents and sister, I need to make the effort to see them when we go to Mary Ann's place for Christmas. I don't have much hope that Dad will understand, but they are my family and family is important at Christmas. Jesus spoke about forgiveness quite often, I still believe He was someone who can inspire me to be a better person by following His teachings.

It would be sweet to have my new and old families reconciled to what I have become. I can't go back to being Angel the Boy, but I hope Angel the Person is someone worth knowing.