I'm sitting here thinking about the long weekend I just finished. Spent Thursday at Holly's folk's house with her family for Turkey day itself. Got a chance to chat with Holly's brother-in-law John and her sister Katy as well.
From here on out, "we" refers to Holly and I... ;)
Woke up late Friday morning as I negelected to turn on my alarm...I set it, but didn't fire it up before I fell asleep. Got a wake up call at 8:30 from Holly, who was patiently waiting for me at her place. Pick her up and hit the road. Mom call's about 9:30, telling me not be rush down as she's pushed dinner back from 1 to 4 so Tricia (my sister) and her family can make it over and not be rushed. Get to Mom's about 1 and sit for a while and talk and catch up with Mom and Terry (my stepdad). Tricia and the kids show up around 4ish and the three older girls attack Holly and start playing with her. My nephew Zach comes over and sits on my lap and we watch some TV...dinner is at 5. After dinner, Zach and I start watching a Spiderman cartoon on DVD, while Holly is once again being drug around the house by my 3 older nieces. Becca, my youngest niece, just does her own thing while all this is going on.
We head over to my maternal Grandparents house to visit with them, since I haven't seen them since April. Grandpa's talking about coming up to Wisconsin to go fishing again this year like he used to before his health started going crazy, and I told him that if he did, to call me and I'd join him. We were over there about an hour or so, then headed back to Mom's to retire. Holly and I stayed up and watch "The World is Not Enough" on the Bondathon on Spike TV...a girl who likes Bond movies...very cool
Saturday, we headed uptown in Monmouth to have breakfast with Mom and Terry, then back to their house to visit some more. Hit the road around 1 to head over to my Dad and stepmom's place. Visit with them before they have to leave to have dinner with some friends. Call Tricia and offer to pick up dinner on the way thru Pekin. Mmmmm...La Gondola....excellent. get to Tricia's and eat. Zach insists that I sit next to him, and the girls are once again, fighting over who gets to sit next to Holly. After dinner the kids start bringing the Christmas tree up from the basement, much to my sister's dismay. While the tree is getting set up, Jack (my brother-in-law) myself, Zach, and Jack's friend Russ are playing Burnout 3, trying to see who can get the most damage in a crash. for being 4, Zach does pretty darn good.
After much turmoil, most of the kids end up in bed, while Russ has headed home and Tricia, Jack, HOlly and I play trivial pursuit....guys vs girls....guys got beat, I'm sorry to say, but we were gracious about it. We played another game of Burnout, then headed to bed.
Woke up around 10 on Sunday morning. The kids my must have been tired, because I assumed that they'd all be up and running by 8. As I was getting my stuff together to get in the shower, I see Abby (my oldest niece) on the phone. She's talking to my stepmom about them coming over for brunch. It must have worked, cuz Dad, Julie (my stepmpm) and Barbie (one of my stepsisters) showed up around 12 for brunch. About 1:30 we get loaded up and head to a friend of mine to meet up with some old friends I haven't seen in a while. These are folks I used to hang out with in college and before I moved to Milwaukee. WE ordered pizza and spent the next 4 hours catching up with each other. Just about everyone is married: Brian and Jamie, Ruth and Tater, Cory and Vicky, Chris and Peggy. Couple of them have kids, and one couple is expecting their first child. While Ruth was eating, I held her daughter Sarah...3 months old...haven't held a newborn in a while. Neeedless to say, Sarah must have been REAL comfortable, cuz she filled her diaper to the point where it leaked onto me :P Never fear, baby fluids don't bother me...went out to the truck, grabbed my bag and changed clothes...Ruth kept apologizing, and I told her it was fine...I was used to it from Tricia's kids.
We start heading home just after 6. Stopped for dinner about 8 or so just to get off the road for a bit. Somewhere near Rochelle, IL, my muffler decides it wants to come off my truck. The exhaust had rusted through right in front of the muffler, so it was all still hanging from my truck and now dragging on the freeway. Get pulled over, grab a bungee cord from my toolbox and get the hanging part of the exhaust secured enough so it isn't dragging on the ground so we can get home....getting it fixed tomorrow I hope. Hit some thick fog after Beloit all the way into Milwaukee, so we took it slow. Got Holly home about 11:30, got her stuff in the house, kissed her goodnight and headed home.
that's my story, and I'm sticking to it ;)
Chad
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