Friday, November 28, 2003

Happy Thanksgiving

The holiday was fun and it wasn't. We made the 2 1/2 hour trip to Idaho to see my wife's parents in our van, the one with a hundred bazillion miles on it. Shortly after we were underway, I realized I hadn't put the jack and lug wrench in the car. I'll get a lot of crap for this after my wife reads this. She nagged me all morning to do it and I finally said something like, "Ok! Ok!, I'm not stupid. I'll take care of it." Of course I didn't so I worried most of the trip that we would have a flat tire. At one point the road was pretty rough and it made the van feel like it was throwing a wheel. I don't think I let on how nervous I was. Then my five year old did something he hasn't done in a long time; he got car sick. He gets that from her side of the family. I never get motion sickness. But there it was, all over the back of my seat and all over his clothes and the blanket we'd packed and just about everything else. We stopped and got some ginger snaps and ginger ale, which always does wonders, but we did it a little too late. We cleaned up as best we could and he spent the first couple of hours at grandma's trying to pull his shirt over his underwear and bare legs while his clothes tumbled around in the washing machine.

I'm not a social creature. I always do my best to avoid conversation, so I spent a lot of time in snowball fights with the boys and playing with the cats. I haven't been around cats for a long time--so long that I forgot I'm allergic to long haired ones. My eyes puffed up and I was preoccupied for much of the rest of our visit with trying not to rub them which always makes it worse.

The dinner was lovely and I ate too much. I felt the effects of this when I had to get up in the middle of the night and take some antacid.

Still, it was a great holiday and a great reminder of all that I have and should be thankful for. I have a job that provides for us in these less-than-booming times, I have a wonderful family and extended family, I have a car that will get us where we need to go. I really have it all.

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