Heath's Random Thoughts

A Lovely Thanksgiving Holiday

So, I have been pretty much terrible keeping posts on this blog up-to-date and I apologize for that and hope to keep at least a couple of new posts on here each week. Let's call it my pre-New Year's resolution.

Now to get to the subject of this post's title. Last week I took some much needed vacation time from work and took Monday - Wednesday off. Unfortunately, I spent Sunday and part of Monday laying around sick, but I did manage to get some chores done around the apartment. I didn't get to shop like I wanted to but I should be able to make up for it in December because I need to take approximately 9 days off or I will lose those vacation days. This must be what it's like to be a teacher, without the thankless work, punk kids and nagging parents. :)

On Wednesday Kelly and I headed for Michigan to spend the holiday with her family. We got to her sister's house in the early evening in time to see her niece before she went to bed. Later that night we took a car load of clothes, dishes and miscellaneous items to the Goodwill drop off. We have been trying to go through our stuff and clear out anything we don't use or wear anymore. Allot of it is good stuff and I am glad someone will be able to get some use out of it rather than it sitting around our apartment collecting dust. After that we spent some time visiting with Mindy and Ron (Kelly's sister and brother-in-law) and then hit the hay. The next morning we got up and lounged around before heading to Kelly's parents' house for a Thanksgiving lunch. The food was great and I wanted to take a nap. Instead we rested for a bit and headed to Grandpa and Grandma Hiddema's (Kelly's Mom's parents). There we participated in the long standing tradition of family Bingo. I had the honor of having the first bingo of the night and won a nice set of screwdrivers. I also past the time attempting to shoot the bingo chips across the table into Mindy's coffee. After Bingo and snacks we headed back to Mindy and Ron's and visited for a while longer and then went to bed.

The next day, Ron and I went to a store that sold ingredients for beer brewing and we (more Ron than me) brewed a batch of Christmas beer. Since it needs a couple of weeks to ferment I won't know how it turns out for a while. We added Cranberry extract and wintergreen leaves while it brewed. Later that afternoon Mindy, Ron and Lucy (Kelly's niece) had to head to Kalamazoo to visit family so Kelly and I went to see her parents and grab dinner.

On Saturday, Kelly and I packed up and made our way over to her parents' house where we met up with Carla (Kelly's mom) and then we made our way to a local Christmas tree farm. After some wandering around in the cold we finally found our tree. Carla took some pictures of us which I will post once I have them uploaded to my Picasa gallery. From there we made our way back to Evanston where we set up the tree and settled in. I will also include pictures of our tree decorated once I have them uploaded. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Labels: Holidays, Thanksgiving, Travel

posted by Heath @ 9:49 PM