Thanksgiving weekend:

Wednesday night: Matt and I had dinner at Republic, one of my favorite restaurants. On the way, we stopped at Astor Wines & Spirits, an enormous wine shop, to buy some wine to bring to my parents’ house the next day. We also bought a bottle of the new Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau for ourselves. It may be a Kool-Aid wine, but it felt so good to do something trendy. After dinner: Matt got a cream puff at Beard Papa and I got some apple pie ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery.

Thursday: We rode the bus from Port Authority to the New Jersey suburbs. (We nearly missed our bus because the ticket line was so long; we got our tickets and then ran to the terminal. We had to stand on the bus, but as we were the last four or five people to get on, that was okay.) Thanksgiving dinner with my parents, my brother and his girlfriend, my aunt, my cousin and her boyfriend. Delicious (my mom’s an amazing cook), coma-inducing. Watched the one-hour “Will & Grace.” My cousin told us that her six-year-old daughter loves Sean Hayes and is always excited when Jack appears on the screen.

Friday: I went to see my grandmother with my dad. She’s 91 years old and lives in a nursing home and her mind is sharp as a tack. I didn’t come out to her, but my parents told me I can if I want to.

(My grandpa died two years ago on the night before Thanksgiving; the funeral was the day after Thanksgiving. It wasn’t until we were driving to visit my grandmother that I remembered this was that day.)

Evening: Matt and I took the train back to the city, two trays of leftovers in tow. At night, we saw “Sideways,” which is excellent. (Here’s a map of the main characters’ wine-tasting journey. The site also has a primer on wine-tasting.)

Saturday: We went to two museums on Museum Mile. First we went to the Neue Galerie, where we saw an exhibit called “Comic Grotesque: Wit and Mockery in German Art, 1870–1940.” Then we went to the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, where we saw some terrific exhibits on modern furniture and design and the like. I loved it. Fifth Avenue is lined with so many small museums such as these; you can bypass the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim and make a day out of visiting the small places. The only problem is that admission to each of these small museums costs between $8-$10.

Afterwards, we walked down Lexington Avenue for a while. Later, we went out for dinner and drinks with Mike. At the Duplex, we watched two couples simultaneously make out next to each other.

Sunday: We did nothing other than go out for brunch and watch TV.

All in all it was a nice, varied weekend.

I’ve also got some Thanksgiving-related thoughts, which I might get to later.