Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, after a hectic day of travelling through the nor’easter yesterday, we finally arrived at my parent’s house last night for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Two-and-a-half hours of white-knuckled driving through the slush and snow and sleet and wind got us the 75 miles into Pennsylvania to our destination.  Well, my knuckles where white (and a Rosary nearly squeezed apart) in the driver’s seat of the Honda Pilot.  The wife drove through like an expert and got us there, passing a half-dozen stranded off-road vehicles (including a broken down snow plow) and getting us to the Last Homely House in the West by seven o’clock last night.

Earlier in the day we lost power at my work after a truck slid off the road in front of the building and took down a power line pole.  Traffic was shut down on the highway that ran past us, and my heart sank as I realized I might be trapped at my place of business and I only half-kidded that I’d be spending Thanksgiving with the people I work with eight-plus hours a day five days a week.  I wanted to be outta there by 2:30 and thanks to the efficiency of the local police, who literally turned traffic around on the highway, we all were “evacuated” by 2:15.

After a warm meal of lasagna at the Pennsylvania house, I warmed my cold, weary, stressed out bones in a hot tub.  Read fifty pages of All Quiet on the Western Front, and started a project of which I will reveal in a week’s time as long as I can stick with it.  (Can you guess what it is?  Hint: I’m officially starting the day after Thanksgiving…).  Went to bed around 11 and slept the sleep of the dead – there is nary a sound at all in the woods where my parent’s house stands – for nine hours, until my human alarm clocks, my six- and ten-year-old, woke me listening to their heavy footfalls and cries of joy through the ceiling above me.

Today the wife is making pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce; my mom is making the turkey and all its accessories.  The girls are playing with their Frozen dolls somewhere in the house.  I am planning on reading half of All Quiet and relaxing without guilt.  Then we’ll all watch the Macy’s parade on the tube.  My brother and his family are due up around twelve or one, and we’ll have Thanksgiving “dinner” around three I guess.  Then the football games, laughing, more eating, general merriment.  I’ll sneak off at some point for some more reading.  In the evening we’ll watch something Christmas-y.  The girls are split – the youngest wants to watch Elf and the oldest White Christmas.  I have a feeling the latter will prevail (wife has the deciding vote).

Tomorrow I’ll be getting up around five, showering, dressing, and borrowing my parent’s Rav4 to drive down south to work Friday.  Have to stop at my house to feed the fish and set the DVR to tape some movies, as well as get myself a pair of sweatpants (forgot to pack ‘’em).  Then, back to the Last Homely House in the West for a weekend of fun and relaxation.

Happy Thanksgiving all!