i wish i had time to tell you about our thanksgiving break–we had a great time visiting family, but so much happened and i’m feeling pressed for time today, so here are some highlights:
–a young cousin (from mr. h-s’ side of the family) gave me a drawing of their cat “pebbles” that she had made especially for me.
–not getting stranded in the car in a no-cell-phone-reception area when the car broke down between his aunt’s house and his parents’.
–a generous mechanic who replaced our alternator on the friday after thanksgiving in the driveway of his parents’ home (so we didn’t have to pay to tow)
–visiting with a high school friend of his and friend’s (relatively new) wife about traveling we’ve each done in the past two years
–meeting my best friend from college’s 8-month old baby–what a cutie!
–learning that we are now aunt and uncle for the first time! (welcome to the world, “skippy”!)
–visiting my cousin (who’s really more like an older sister) and her family and eating a german meal of sausage, potatoes, cabbage, sauerkraut, and sweet rice (i don’t think i’d realized before that sausage/sweet rice/saurkraut was a family meal and not just something my parents did)
–seeing another cousin who had lived abroad for many years and whom i hadn’t seen for almost as long as he’d been gone, plus meeting his new wife (from turkey) and her son.
–eating lunch at my favorite restaurant in my old hometown (not a chain and with no substitute anywhere i’ve found)
–visiting longtime family friends (is it possible that we hadn’t seen each other for six years??!) on their homestead farm where they produce all of their own electricity and water and much of their own food. every time i visit them, i wonder why we don’t all live like them. then i remind myself how much work it is and my astounding admiration for them is renewed all over again.
–playing cards (“hand and foot”) with the in-laws (i lost miserably but still had fun)
–finally getting on the road home sunday morning after 3 false starts which included parts of the car bouncing down the road (turned out later to be the part that had fallen off thursday night but had just been hiding somewhere in the engine), a wallet left in the car we’d borrowed to drive to see my family, and a few other things i forget.
–home again, home again, despite pouring rain for the last few hours of the drive. mr. happy stuff, you are my hero.
