November 30, 2004

1500 miles

Thanksgiving Trip Pictures
(link opens in a new window)

This blog entry won't be as extensive as many of our trip blogs, simply because it was a pretty simple trip: drive, squeeze Reganne, eat, squeeze Reganne some more, drive home.

Oh, that driving part... Lydia absolutely loved the 750-mile each way drive to Texas. She especially loved the six-hour first day... the last two hours of which were in a driving rain through concrete construction barriers amid sixteen wheelers in pitch blackness, save for our headlights. She was enthralled by our non-draining bathtub at our hotel in Little Rock, and thrilled by the five-hour second day through the amazing sights of East Texas.

We stayed with John and Michelle who were kind enough to host us for our entire time in Texas. This provided lots of opportunity to play with our niece and gave John and Michelle a bit of live-in babysitting for the three days we were there. It was also fun to see Pop and Polly interacting with their first great-grandchild. Reganne seemed to enjoy being the center of everyone's attention... and deservedly so!

Thanksgiving dinner was huge and involved fifteen members of our extended family... but that's what makes family gatherings great, right? Even Lydia's husband's aunt's nephew was there - a seminary student at SWBTS! Vast amounts of John and Michelle's Alton Brown-inspired brined-and-smoked turkey and Aunt Jean's ha-yum and Aunt Linda's sweet potatoes and Michelle's cranberry salad and Mother Cheeker's dressing (aptly prepared by Mom and Polly) and Lydia's corn casserole and Allison's pumpkin pie were consumed by all - pictures above.

Friday we hit a few sales. Our first stop, JoAnn's, was not crowded at all. After Lydia and I made a first run, Lydia kept Reganne while John, Michelle and I took a second stab. John scored a wireless-G router for $10 AR. That night, Mom and Dad treated us to a Fort Worth Symphony holiday pops concert at the Bass Symphony Hall. Dad got us great seats... we were so close that we should have brought our violins! It was an incredible way to start off the Christmas season, and great fun (except for the city of Fort Worth's incredible ineptitude in handling their traffic.)

Saturday was the start of the long trek home, via Memphis and the Extended Stay Hotel there (recommendation: don't stay there.) Lydia loved the trip back almost as much as the trip there.

To sum up, it was totally worth the effort, and we'd do it again in a heartbeat... unless we could find plane tickets in half a heartbeat. :D

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John Watts said...
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