Thanksgiving 2004
Wednesday
Wednesday morning we awoke to a snowstorm in Kansas City. It was beautiful, and Dominic was excited when he first caught a glimpse of the white drifts outside. He played for a little bit in the snow before we left for work and school, our last day prior to the Thanksgiving vacation. I was one of the few people on my floor that made it into work, and I didn't get there until about 10:30. After a light day of work, I picked up Sharon around 5:00 (we had driven together so I didn't have to drive the truck in the snow) and we went to Weight Watchers. It was Sharon's last weigh-in since she is pregnant. I was happy with my weigh-in. I lost a couple of pounds (though I'm sure I gained them back after my weekend of gluttony.) We didn't stay for the meeting, because we had to go to the grocery store and home to pack before picking up Dominic. We ran our errands, and got to La Petite at about 6:35 to get Dominic. He was the last kid there, and he was waiting out front with two of the teachers that were probably less than happy with us for getting there late. We packed Domi up in the car, and headed to grandma Alice's house, singing songs on the way there. When we entered the house, I could already smell the aroma of Thanksgiving. We messed around for a little while inside, ate some spaghetti and then Domi and I bundled up and headed outside to play. The snow wasn't as wet as it had been in the morning, so it was hard to make snowballs and snowmen. But, we were outside for nearly an hour, and we had fun chasing each other around in the snow. We were waiting for Uncle Todd to arrive from Pennsylvania. He finally got to the house at around 9:30, and Dominic pummelled his rented car with snowballs. We all went inside, and Uncle Todd presented Dominic with a chocolate dinosaur. Sharing it with others, Dominic finished off this prehistoric snack before the end of the night. We visited for awhile, but then Dominic started to get tired. He wanted to go home, and he was not about to go to sleep without a fight. Sharon took him upstairs, and he pleaded and begged to go home. "Please give me a chance, mama, just one chance", as if we were sentencing him to prison. "This place is all about the Bible, and I don't like the Bible." Interesting angle. "My toys aren't here. Only pappap's toys are here, and I don't like pappap's toys." Jeesh?! Was it ever going to end? Finally, he calmed down and fell asleep. By the end of this episode, everyone else was exhausted also, and we all went shortly to bed, me downstairs on the couch.
Thursday: Thanksgiving Day
My alarm clock rang at 7:00 to awaken me for the Turkey Trot 5K. I wiped the sleep from my eyes, put on layers of clothing, and drove to Jerod's house to pick him up. As we were leaving Jerod's house, I accidentally let his dog escape out the front door. We had to chase him down, which happily did not take a long time. We ran our 5K at the Sprint campus in Overland Park (my old stomping grounds.) I ran it in just over 30 minutes, which isn't bad for the conditions. There were patches of ice on the ground, and a narrow start which made it hard for the pack to separate. The important thing was that I got some exercise prior to the feast.
Back at grandma Alice's house, Dominic and I went outside to play, and we were soon joined by pappap Jim and Uncle Todd. We tried to build some snowmen (the snow was much better in the morning), but Dominic kept knocking them down. He likes destruction. Uncle Todd found a football, and we played some catch. This was fun. It reminded me of the backyard football games of my youth, where we relished snow days and played football in any kind of weather. After an hour or so, it was time to go inside. I was exhausted. I took a shower, and before long lunch was ready. We feasted on turkey, green bean casserole, rolls, potatoes, noodles, veggies, stuffing, gravy and many other delightful delicacies. I was pretty good to myself at lunch, but the rest of Thursday and subsequent days was a different story. I ate anything and everything in sight. My attitude became: Weight Watchers be damned!! I hope I don't pay for it too dearly on Thursday, when I go to weigh-in.
Dominic actually fell asleep after being outside, and he slept right through lunch. This was fine with everyone, because we all knew Domi needed some good rest. After we got done eating, I snuck upstairs where I was going to lay down with Dominic. When I got to his room, he was already waking up. I layed down next to him, and it was cozy. But, he soon got up and wandered downstairs. I stayed put, and slept for at least an hour and a half (I think). It was some much needed rest!
In the evening, we played dominoes and alphabet bingo, which Dominic really enjoyed. Then we went downstairs. Domi and I played pool and messed around with pappap's tools, and the grown-ups were out in the living room watching the Seinfeld special. I had a fun day playing with Dominic. We spent a lot of time together. It was a great Thanksgiving, and I realized I had plenty for which to be thankful.
Friday
Sharon and Alice had to go to work from 9-12, courtesy of Scrooge Albani :) Dominic woke up early, and when Sharon left he came downstairs to watch Peter Pan. I was half asleep, but he kept waking me up to watch certain scenes. After Peter Pan, I begged him to watch another cartoon so I could sleep some more, but he wanted to play. We went upstairs, got some breakfast, and played around. I started to gather up our belonging to prepare for our trip to Iowa. Uncle Todd and pappap Jim went outside to put up some Christmas lights. Sharon and Alice got back home around 1:30. We had a good lunch of leftovers, and then it was off to grandma Judy's in Iowa.
It was a pretty smooth trip to Iowa. We left from Kearney, which shortened the trip a little bit. Dominic slept about half way. It was nice to arrive in Iowa in the evening instead of late at night like we usually do on a normal weekend.
I ran on the treadmill for 3 miles. Of course, shortly after I started running, Dominic wanted to run. Amazingly, I was able to finish my 3 miles before he forced me to let him run. He was watching a Rugrats movie, so that helped.
It was great to see Granny. She looked great, as always.
Saturday
Sharon and I slept in, and I mean we really slept in. I didn't get out of bed until around noon. I helped Dominic make some potion in the sink that he was calling "dragon potion." It was fun. We were using all kinds of spices, sauces and herbs. It looked gross when we got done, which is half the point.
The day went pretty quick since we slept so late. Of course, Dominic had been up since around 9:00. Him, Granny and grandma Judy had a coloring contest. Lynae might have been in on that too.
Later in the day, Lynae and Sharon took their customary trip to Ft. Madison to shop. I tried to get Domi to go outside, because I wanted to take him up on the bluff. He was getting tired and hungry. After he ate and rested, he finally agreed to go outside for awhile. He wanted to walk all the way to the river!! I tried to discourage that, since it was dark and cold by this time. Fortunately, he listened to reason and we didn't go all the way down to the river. We walked around the ballfield, and we were outside for about an hour I think.
After Dominic went to sleep, we played a new game named SceneIt which utilizes the DVD player. Basically, it's a movie trivia game, and it is a lot of fun. You have to watch scenes from movies and then answer trivia questions. Lynae and I were teammates, and we won 3 out of the 4 games we played. Mark would be really good at the game with his vast movie knowledge. Maybe we'll get it for him and Sherri for Christmas.
Sunday
The focus on Sunday was football. The crowd stared arriving at 11:30. We got to see Travis' new baby.
The Steelers beat Washington in a close game, 16-7.
We actually got the car packed at halftime of the game so that we could make a quick departure afterwards. It was nice to leave at around 4:00, because we got home around 9:00 instead of really late. I even went for a jog after we got home.
A great Thanksgiving break!!
Wednesday morning we awoke to a snowstorm in Kansas City. It was beautiful, and Dominic was excited when he first caught a glimpse of the white drifts outside. He played for a little bit in the snow before we left for work and school, our last day prior to the Thanksgiving vacation. I was one of the few people on my floor that made it into work, and I didn't get there until about 10:30. After a light day of work, I picked up Sharon around 5:00 (we had driven together so I didn't have to drive the truck in the snow) and we went to Weight Watchers. It was Sharon's last weigh-in since she is pregnant. I was happy with my weigh-in. I lost a couple of pounds (though I'm sure I gained them back after my weekend of gluttony.) We didn't stay for the meeting, because we had to go to the grocery store and home to pack before picking up Dominic. We ran our errands, and got to La Petite at about 6:35 to get Dominic. He was the last kid there, and he was waiting out front with two of the teachers that were probably less than happy with us for getting there late. We packed Domi up in the car, and headed to grandma Alice's house, singing songs on the way there. When we entered the house, I could already smell the aroma of Thanksgiving. We messed around for a little while inside, ate some spaghetti and then Domi and I bundled up and headed outside to play. The snow wasn't as wet as it had been in the morning, so it was hard to make snowballs and snowmen. But, we were outside for nearly an hour, and we had fun chasing each other around in the snow. We were waiting for Uncle Todd to arrive from Pennsylvania. He finally got to the house at around 9:30, and Dominic pummelled his rented car with snowballs. We all went inside, and Uncle Todd presented Dominic with a chocolate dinosaur. Sharing it with others, Dominic finished off this prehistoric snack before the end of the night. We visited for awhile, but then Dominic started to get tired. He wanted to go home, and he was not about to go to sleep without a fight. Sharon took him upstairs, and he pleaded and begged to go home. "Please give me a chance, mama, just one chance", as if we were sentencing him to prison. "This place is all about the Bible, and I don't like the Bible." Interesting angle. "My toys aren't here. Only pappap's toys are here, and I don't like pappap's toys." Jeesh?! Was it ever going to end? Finally, he calmed down and fell asleep. By the end of this episode, everyone else was exhausted also, and we all went shortly to bed, me downstairs on the couch.
Thursday: Thanksgiving Day
My alarm clock rang at 7:00 to awaken me for the Turkey Trot 5K. I wiped the sleep from my eyes, put on layers of clothing, and drove to Jerod's house to pick him up. As we were leaving Jerod's house, I accidentally let his dog escape out the front door. We had to chase him down, which happily did not take a long time. We ran our 5K at the Sprint campus in Overland Park (my old stomping grounds.) I ran it in just over 30 minutes, which isn't bad for the conditions. There were patches of ice on the ground, and a narrow start which made it hard for the pack to separate. The important thing was that I got some exercise prior to the feast.
Back at grandma Alice's house, Dominic and I went outside to play, and we were soon joined by pappap Jim and Uncle Todd. We tried to build some snowmen (the snow was much better in the morning), but Dominic kept knocking them down. He likes destruction. Uncle Todd found a football, and we played some catch. This was fun. It reminded me of the backyard football games of my youth, where we relished snow days and played football in any kind of weather. After an hour or so, it was time to go inside. I was exhausted. I took a shower, and before long lunch was ready. We feasted on turkey, green bean casserole, rolls, potatoes, noodles, veggies, stuffing, gravy and many other delightful delicacies. I was pretty good to myself at lunch, but the rest of Thursday and subsequent days was a different story. I ate anything and everything in sight. My attitude became: Weight Watchers be damned!! I hope I don't pay for it too dearly on Thursday, when I go to weigh-in.
Dominic actually fell asleep after being outside, and he slept right through lunch. This was fine with everyone, because we all knew Domi needed some good rest. After we got done eating, I snuck upstairs where I was going to lay down with Dominic. When I got to his room, he was already waking up. I layed down next to him, and it was cozy. But, he soon got up and wandered downstairs. I stayed put, and slept for at least an hour and a half (I think). It was some much needed rest!
In the evening, we played dominoes and alphabet bingo, which Dominic really enjoyed. Then we went downstairs. Domi and I played pool and messed around with pappap's tools, and the grown-ups were out in the living room watching the Seinfeld special. I had a fun day playing with Dominic. We spent a lot of time together. It was a great Thanksgiving, and I realized I had plenty for which to be thankful.
Friday
Sharon and Alice had to go to work from 9-12, courtesy of Scrooge Albani :) Dominic woke up early, and when Sharon left he came downstairs to watch Peter Pan. I was half asleep, but he kept waking me up to watch certain scenes. After Peter Pan, I begged him to watch another cartoon so I could sleep some more, but he wanted to play. We went upstairs, got some breakfast, and played around. I started to gather up our belonging to prepare for our trip to Iowa. Uncle Todd and pappap Jim went outside to put up some Christmas lights. Sharon and Alice got back home around 1:30. We had a good lunch of leftovers, and then it was off to grandma Judy's in Iowa.
It was a pretty smooth trip to Iowa. We left from Kearney, which shortened the trip a little bit. Dominic slept about half way. It was nice to arrive in Iowa in the evening instead of late at night like we usually do on a normal weekend.
I ran on the treadmill for 3 miles. Of course, shortly after I started running, Dominic wanted to run. Amazingly, I was able to finish my 3 miles before he forced me to let him run. He was watching a Rugrats movie, so that helped.
It was great to see Granny. She looked great, as always.
Saturday
Sharon and I slept in, and I mean we really slept in. I didn't get out of bed until around noon. I helped Dominic make some potion in the sink that he was calling "dragon potion." It was fun. We were using all kinds of spices, sauces and herbs. It looked gross when we got done, which is half the point.
The day went pretty quick since we slept so late. Of course, Dominic had been up since around 9:00. Him, Granny and grandma Judy had a coloring contest. Lynae might have been in on that too.
Later in the day, Lynae and Sharon took their customary trip to Ft. Madison to shop. I tried to get Domi to go outside, because I wanted to take him up on the bluff. He was getting tired and hungry. After he ate and rested, he finally agreed to go outside for awhile. He wanted to walk all the way to the river!! I tried to discourage that, since it was dark and cold by this time. Fortunately, he listened to reason and we didn't go all the way down to the river. We walked around the ballfield, and we were outside for about an hour I think.
After Dominic went to sleep, we played a new game named SceneIt which utilizes the DVD player. Basically, it's a movie trivia game, and it is a lot of fun. You have to watch scenes from movies and then answer trivia questions. Lynae and I were teammates, and we won 3 out of the 4 games we played. Mark would be really good at the game with his vast movie knowledge. Maybe we'll get it for him and Sherri for Christmas.
Sunday
The focus on Sunday was football. The crowd stared arriving at 11:30. We got to see Travis' new baby.
The Steelers beat Washington in a close game, 16-7.
We actually got the car packed at halftime of the game so that we could make a quick departure afterwards. It was nice to leave at around 4:00, because we got home around 9:00 instead of really late. I even went for a jog after we got home.
A great Thanksgiving break!!
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