Today my first grader had his Thanksgiving Feast. You know, the traditional have turkey and gravy the tuesday week before Thanksgiving?

So, of course, since we are still adjusting to the new tradition of Tuesday before the week of thanksgiving feast, my wife gave him a Lunchable this morning. This is the third day this year he has taken his lunch.

I get an e-mail about 10:00 AM: “It would be great if you could go eat lunch with him. Obviously I can’t as I am teaching all day.” So I look at the calendar and there it is, the Feast.

I leave the office with just enough time to make it there. You have to sign in at the office, and I remembered to do that, too. Not that anybody checks, but you get the nifty “HELLO! MY NAME IS illegible” nametag. Mine was blue.

I look around, I see some first graders but apparently things are running behind. His first grade class finally comes down the sidewalk and he is beaming when he sees me. “Why are you here?” Well, I thought we could eat lunch. There are other parents around, meeting up with their kids, so he accepted that explanation. While we are waiting our turn to go into the actual building (his school is a dozen buildings or so with walkways between them, so the cafeteria is by itself, his classroom is down the hill and aways off, the office is near the cafeteria in a building with the library, etc.) Anyway, we’re waiting to go in, and there is the obvious hubbub of grown ups everywhere and the kids are abuzz.

“It’s a party!” my son exclaims.

“No, it’s a feast.” corrects one of his cohorts.

“It’s a Feast Party.” my son decides. Okay, then, it’s a Feast Party.

When I bought my ticket, I glanced into their cash box and saw they had about six quarters. Lunch costs $2.50 (not bad, for a Feast and all) and unlike many of the Just-Came-From-The-ATM parents, I had some singles, but no change. I insisted to the nice mom manning the cash box that she keep the change, no doubt she would need it as the day wore on. I told her I’d get extra gravy.

They finally tell us we can go inside, and my son scurries ahead, with the other kids that brought their lunch. (did I mention he brought his lunch? he did) I quickly realize that a)the lunch line is moving way slow since the stupid parents can’t get their lunch as fast as the six year olds that are used to the system and 2)my ADD son is going to freak trying to figure out how to save me a seat and then worry about where I went and why it is taking so long; it we never an option (to him) to save the lunchable for another day and get the turkey and gravy. So I found another friend who was waiting in line with HER son and asked her if she had bought a ticket yet – no? Here, please have mine. She was flustered “No cash, I can write you a check…” Nah. Next year? You can buy me a feast.

So my son and I sat together, and we talked, and he had his lunchable, and he even had one slice of cheese that he didn’t want so that became my Feast. And it was good.