jmaynard and I visited my folks at Thanksgiving and we took care of at least some of Christmas then. sistaur was going to visit my folks at Christmas, while Jay and I were in Texas, but between weather and illness that didn't work out. We were all going to get together on Easter but scheduling, illness, and weather made that another no-go. So it was yesterday ( Read more... )

The travelling was nicely uneventful, and the family gathering was pretty much what I'd expected. It was amusing to see Jay's reaction to a real Winter cold snap. Well, it amused those who saw it and who were not Jay. The meal(s) were all quite good. The homemade cole slaw was really good. It makes one realize how lacking the stuff one gets in ( Read more... )

A recent post, protected so I won't bother linking to it, brought up a bit of how people treat anniversaries and holidays differently. I find I tend to recognize them, but I'm not too big on holding to exact dates for things. I think that came about from sharing, or perhaps not sharing, a birthday.

My sister and I have the same birthday, ( Read more... )

The trip to Houston for Christmas week went fairly well. jmaynard summed it up here.

Didn't do anything special for New Year's Eve. Nothing unusual there. If anything, I'd stay up till the year changed and then get some sleep. Spending the later evening at home keeps the probability of dealing with those who drink to excess down.

New Year's Day wasn't ( Read more... )

...to Arkansas. Though actually we didn't go to Arkansas until after spending a night in Kimberling City, MO. Thanksgiving and the Friday after) were spent in Missouri and Arkansas.

Some observations:

I noticed southern (to me) accents even as far north as Bethany, MO which isn't far from the Iowa border. The accents are a bit more noticeable ( Read more... )