Home again, home again
Sorry I've been so quiet lately. This time, though, I had an excuse! I was out of town! jendaby and I took the kids down to New Orleans for the week to see my dad and his lady friend for Thanksgiving.
We had a great time. My middle sister and her boyfriend actually made it down for the first weekend, which was awesome. My buddy Sam was also down there, so we got to see him and his lovely wife on Saturday as well. And I got to see not only my old guitar teacher (yes, I took guitar lessons when I was a kid. No, I don't remember how to play properly) but also an old friend of mine from when I was in Tulane's Youth Theater program.
We spent lots of time with my dad and his lady, as well as with her grandkids, who bonded with our kids instantly--the older one, especially, became their instant adopted big sister, and helped keep an eye on our son half the time. We were staying at the lady friend's house, which is beautiful and just off St. Charles (so right on the street car line) and literally two blocks from the house I grew up in. We wandered around the French Quarter a bit, drove through the Garden District, went to the aquarium, checked out the Maple Street Bookstore, and a few other places.
Thanksgiving itself was really nice, though there was some drama involved--the lady friend's daughter was hosting and cooking dinner (she's a caterer) but injured herself a few days before and so the other daughter came down and she and the lady friend did the cooking at the first daughter's house while we helped out by taking the grandkids around with us a few times. The first daughter was released just in time to get home for dinner, which was great, and everyone was really nice (the other daughter and I actually went to Sunday school together, many moons ago, but didn't really know each other), and the food was excellent.
We also got pralines, beignets, muffalettas, po-boys, gumbo, and jambalyaya during the course of our trip. Hey, how can we not?
Now we're back home, the kids are back in school, and I'm back at work. I'm the only one here today for my group, but it's not too horrendous. I've also got a few novel revisions to tidy up, a YA book to finish, a novel outline to hear back about, and a few short stories to write. December should be a busy month.
I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day!
We had a great time. My middle sister and her boyfriend actually made it down for the first weekend, which was awesome. My buddy Sam was also down there, so we got to see him and his lovely wife on Saturday as well. And I got to see not only my old guitar teacher (yes, I took guitar lessons when I was a kid. No, I don't remember how to play properly) but also an old friend of mine from when I was in Tulane's Youth Theater program.
We spent lots of time with my dad and his lady, as well as with her grandkids, who bonded with our kids instantly--the older one, especially, became their instant adopted big sister, and helped keep an eye on our son half the time. We were staying at the lady friend's house, which is beautiful and just off St. Charles (so right on the street car line) and literally two blocks from the house I grew up in. We wandered around the French Quarter a bit, drove through the Garden District, went to the aquarium, checked out the Maple Street Bookstore, and a few other places.
Thanksgiving itself was really nice, though there was some drama involved--the lady friend's daughter was hosting and cooking dinner (she's a caterer) but injured herself a few days before and so the other daughter came down and she and the lady friend did the cooking at the first daughter's house while we helped out by taking the grandkids around with us a few times. The first daughter was released just in time to get home for dinner, which was great, and everyone was really nice (the other daughter and I actually went to Sunday school together, many moons ago, but didn't really know each other), and the food was excellent.
We also got pralines, beignets, muffalettas, po-boys, gumbo, and jambalyaya during the course of our trip. Hey, how can we not?
Now we're back home, the kids are back in school, and I'm back at work. I'm the only one here today for my group, but it's not too horrendous. I've also got a few novel revisions to tidy up, a YA book to finish, a novel outline to hear back about, and a few short stories to write. December should be a busy month.
I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day!