Thanksgiving Update Part 2
After our adventures on Wednesday, we stayed in on Thursday. We were at Matt's mom's apartment and we watched the terribly disappointing Lions Thanksgiving Day Game. I did imbibe with Peach and Raspberry Lambic.
Matt's mom put out an antipasto lunch - cheeses, peperoni, olives etc. It was very good.
Matt's brother and his girlfriend of 9 years came over as well.
We had dinner at 5ish - turkey and all the tradtional fixings plus Matt and I made Penne Carbonara. All of the food was great.
We then went over Matt's cousin's house for desert. One of his Aunts passed away earlier this year so everyone is much more concientious about getting together - life's too short and all. I hadn't seen that part of Matt's family for a long time.
On Friday we got up early and drove up to Franknmuth Michigan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenmuth,_Michigan) and met my family - Mom, Dad, brother, sister, brother-in-law, 2 nephews. We had lunch and great conversation and then walked around the city to some of the shops.
After that our mom and dad (and brother since he was riding with them) went home and then my sister's family, Matt and I went over to Bronners, "the World's Largest Christmas store". We were there for HOURS.
I had a mission though. A couple weeks ago Matt and I found a blown glass ornament that was a bottle of wine. We bought it. That got me thinking - we have a little lime green tinsel tree that we set up (in conjunction to our regular tree) and I thought it would be cool to have ornaments for that little tree that represented each of the Olympic Gods! So, I was on a mission to find the other 12 ornaments (I've always included the interchangable gods in the Olympians - I don't like to leave anyone out). It all started with that wine bottle for Dionysos. I got such things as a peacock for Hera and a little log cabin with a cat sleeping out front for Hestia. I will post more detail and pictures of it once I have it all set up. I think it will be a nice meditative christmas activity for me - as I place each ornament on the tree I can recount a myth or a memory of that deity.
Of course, that also led to the logicstics issue of getting 13 blown glass ornaments on an airplane with no issues. Luckily, they all made the journey just fine.
After spending that long in Bronners Matt and I went to Lake Orion Michigan. Our friend and college roommate BJ was part of a group hosting a 40 person poker tournament. They had actually rented a storefront in a shopping plaza! They had the dinner catered and it was a lot of fun. I didn't play but I hung out with BJ and caught up.
On Saturday we went to see Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny. It was cute - it helps to be a fan and know the HBO series. We wanted to see it before we go to the concert next week so we were caught up with the most up to date material.
Then we went over to a local recording studio where our friends Rob and Dan were recording. I didn't get to meet with the rest of the band because they had all finished the day before. It was fun.
Then Matt took me to my mom and dad's and hung out with them for the evening while Matt had dinner with his brother.
Then sunday we went to breakfast and then to the airport and back home to Atlanta.
Phew!
ps - typos - whatever....