Thanksgiving 2008
Much of this is cross-posted from my personal journal merryshannon, but this entry has pictures. ^~
We are now back from our annual Thanksgiving trip to Amarillo to see Shasta's parents. It was a good time, though less of an event than last year's huge family-reunion-style feast... Really, though, I think the holidays are more about having that reunion with your family than about food, traditions or what-have-you. Bottom line is, if you're all together for a common purpose, it's a holiday. ♥ I didn't get very many pictures because I was feeling really icky all day long, but Shasta went around and snapped a few after dinner.
The men of Shasta's family playing cards around the kitchen table after Thanksgiving dinner. Starting at the bottom and going clockwise, we have: Jacob, Anthony, Shannon, Richard (Shasta's bio mom's boyfriend), Jeremy, Shasta's Dad, and Melvin.
Shasta's mom, and Precious -- the NOISIEST DOG ON EARTH.
We did hit up Walmart on Black Friday and bought two shop-vacs for $15 each... one for us and one as a Christmas gift for my dad. We also bought a little stick vaccuum for $9 to use on our new hard floors when we get them all in, and a George Foreman grill for $27. Shasta bought herself an iPod nano, too. Early Christmas present to herself. :P We didn't spend as much this year as we did last year, though...
Then on Friday afternoon we drove to Dallas and spent the night with my grandparents. It was a really short trip... we probably spent as much time driving there and back (12 hours) as we did actually there... but it was really nice to see my grandmother. She had two small strokes earlier this year and her health was very dodgy for a while. She seems to have recovered for the most part, though she does lose track of her thoughts and struggle to find certain words more than she used to. But I was saddened to see how much weight she'd lost -- she looks so delicate and fragile now, and tires easily, though she's still just as spunky as I remember.
We took her over to the craft store where she worked for many years, so she could say hi to her friends there (and show me off a little.) I have a lot of memories of this store; when I was a kid and we visited she would bring me there for hours at a time. Again, I didn't get any really good pictures. I'm kicking myself now for not having at least had my grandparents pose with me for a pic before we left... I will have to make sure that I do that on our next visit.
Front of the Store.
Inside the Store.
Melba, the store owner, talking to my grandmother.
I was ASTONISHED at how pleasantly my conservative, traditional grandmother accepted Shasta. My mom had outed me to her about a year or so ago... and she was gracious and friendly to Shasta, showed no awkwardness about allowing us to share a room at her house, introduced Shasta to her friends at work as "Meghann's very best friend" and later said she thought that Shasta and I made a "terrific couple". I was blown away. So much so, in fact, that in retrospect I don't think I acknowledged her acceptance the way I should have. I wasn't sure whether to thank her for it / draw attention to it or just act like it was no big deal, so I think in a strange way it ended up coming across that I was ignoring every gesture she made. X.x I think I will write her a thank-you letter for the visit and try to let her know how much I appreciated it.
We had a terrifying drive home... there was a blizzard / ice storm spanning about 50 miles or so before we hit Raton, complete with black ice, long caravans of cars going 5 mph, whiteouts that lasted 10 full seconds at a time, and multiple trucks and SUVs turned UPSIDE DOWN on the side of the road. I have only ever been in one scarier driving situation in my life (and that's because in addition to the above, it was also pitch black outside.) Shasta drove us through it like a champ, though, going really slowly and keeping control of the car. She has a great sense of our center of gravity and I think more than once it saved us from joining those folks in the ditches alongside the road. I'd pretty much decided we were going to get a hotel for the night in Raton once we got there... but when we got about 5 miles outside the city the roads and weather suddenly cleared.
We made it all the way to Colorado Springs, where we then got stuck in traffic. After waiting 2 hours and getting only about 20 miles, I called my dad, who told us that the news was reporting that the traffic was packed solid from Colorado Springs all the way up to Denver and that news reporters were urging people to stay home. So I got off the highway, turned around, and we went to stay at his house for the night. It was disappointing as we'd been in the car for so long and were soooo looking forward to getting home to our own nice soft bed... but it was still better than being stuck in traffic all night long.
Anyway, we got home and I had a couple of days to work on house stuff... we grouted the tile in the entryway, and I took Orion to the vet for the wheezing/congestion he's been fighting for the past few weeks. Expensive cat -- it was over $400 because he needed x-rays, blood tests and medication. The vet thinks Orion has feline herpes, but we won't know for another few days, until the test results come back. I'm giving him eye drops and some paste stuff that is supposed to boost his immune system. He does seem to be feeling better, at least.
Pictures of the final entryway will come soon... we're thinking maybe this weekend we'll be able to finish up laying the laminate! I cannot WAIT. We did unpack several of Shasta's kitchen boxes from our garage, and put duplicate stuff in boxes for a summer garage sale... now we have her pretty, colorful dishes to eat with. Once we get the downstairs flooring finished we can actually *use* our living room space. I think we're going to set up an office area down there rather than in the second spare bedroom; with all my sewing supplies and her art supplies in that bedroom it makes more sense to put the computer desk down there. I also want to set up the pretty fish tank that was given to us by some friends, and we're excited to re-do the previous occupants' sponge painted walls with something that's more "us".
Always so very busy this time of year! :P
We are now back from our annual Thanksgiving trip to Amarillo to see Shasta's parents. It was a good time, though less of an event than last year's huge family-reunion-style feast... Really, though, I think the holidays are more about having that reunion with your family than about food, traditions or what-have-you. Bottom line is, if you're all together for a common purpose, it's a holiday. ♥ I didn't get very many pictures because I was feeling really icky all day long, but Shasta went around and snapped a few after dinner.
The men of Shasta's family playing cards around the kitchen table after Thanksgiving dinner. Starting at the bottom and going clockwise, we have: Jacob, Anthony, Shannon, Richard (Shasta's bio mom's boyfriend), Jeremy, Shasta's Dad, and Melvin.
Shasta's mom, and Precious -- the NOISIEST DOG ON EARTH.
We did hit up Walmart on Black Friday and bought two shop-vacs for $15 each... one for us and one as a Christmas gift for my dad. We also bought a little stick vaccuum for $9 to use on our new hard floors when we get them all in, and a George Foreman grill for $27. Shasta bought herself an iPod nano, too. Early Christmas present to herself. :P We didn't spend as much this year as we did last year, though...
Then on Friday afternoon we drove to Dallas and spent the night with my grandparents. It was a really short trip... we probably spent as much time driving there and back (12 hours) as we did actually there... but it was really nice to see my grandmother. She had two small strokes earlier this year and her health was very dodgy for a while. She seems to have recovered for the most part, though she does lose track of her thoughts and struggle to find certain words more than she used to. But I was saddened to see how much weight she'd lost -- she looks so delicate and fragile now, and tires easily, though she's still just as spunky as I remember.
We took her over to the craft store where she worked for many years, so she could say hi to her friends there (and show me off a little.) I have a lot of memories of this store; when I was a kid and we visited she would bring me there for hours at a time. Again, I didn't get any really good pictures. I'm kicking myself now for not having at least had my grandparents pose with me for a pic before we left... I will have to make sure that I do that on our next visit.
Front of the Store.
Inside the Store.
Melba, the store owner, talking to my grandmother.
I was ASTONISHED at how pleasantly my conservative, traditional grandmother accepted Shasta. My mom had outed me to her about a year or so ago... and she was gracious and friendly to Shasta, showed no awkwardness about allowing us to share a room at her house, introduced Shasta to her friends at work as "Meghann's very best friend" and later said she thought that Shasta and I made a "terrific couple". I was blown away. So much so, in fact, that in retrospect I don't think I acknowledged her acceptance the way I should have. I wasn't sure whether to thank her for it / draw attention to it or just act like it was no big deal, so I think in a strange way it ended up coming across that I was ignoring every gesture she made. X.x I think I will write her a thank-you letter for the visit and try to let her know how much I appreciated it.
We had a terrifying drive home... there was a blizzard / ice storm spanning about 50 miles or so before we hit Raton, complete with black ice, long caravans of cars going 5 mph, whiteouts that lasted 10 full seconds at a time, and multiple trucks and SUVs turned UPSIDE DOWN on the side of the road. I have only ever been in one scarier driving situation in my life (and that's because in addition to the above, it was also pitch black outside.) Shasta drove us through it like a champ, though, going really slowly and keeping control of the car. She has a great sense of our center of gravity and I think more than once it saved us from joining those folks in the ditches alongside the road. I'd pretty much decided we were going to get a hotel for the night in Raton once we got there... but when we got about 5 miles outside the city the roads and weather suddenly cleared.
We made it all the way to Colorado Springs, where we then got stuck in traffic. After waiting 2 hours and getting only about 20 miles, I called my dad, who told us that the news was reporting that the traffic was packed solid from Colorado Springs all the way up to Denver and that news reporters were urging people to stay home. So I got off the highway, turned around, and we went to stay at his house for the night. It was disappointing as we'd been in the car for so long and were soooo looking forward to getting home to our own nice soft bed... but it was still better than being stuck in traffic all night long.
Anyway, we got home and I had a couple of days to work on house stuff... we grouted the tile in the entryway, and I took Orion to the vet for the wheezing/congestion he's been fighting for the past few weeks. Expensive cat -- it was over $400 because he needed x-rays, blood tests and medication. The vet thinks Orion has feline herpes, but we won't know for another few days, until the test results come back. I'm giving him eye drops and some paste stuff that is supposed to boost his immune system. He does seem to be feeling better, at least.
Pictures of the final entryway will come soon... we're thinking maybe this weekend we'll be able to finish up laying the laminate! I cannot WAIT. We did unpack several of Shasta's kitchen boxes from our garage, and put duplicate stuff in boxes for a summer garage sale... now we have her pretty, colorful dishes to eat with. Once we get the downstairs flooring finished we can actually *use* our living room space. I think we're going to set up an office area down there rather than in the second spare bedroom; with all my sewing supplies and her art supplies in that bedroom it makes more sense to put the computer desk down there. I also want to set up the pretty fish tank that was given to us by some friends, and we're excited to re-do the previous occupants' sponge painted walls with something that's more "us".
Always so very busy this time of year! :P