Thanksgiving Recap

I worry sometimes that reading a post can give you that same kind of feeling you got when you had to sit through a hideous night of slides from some stupid vacation and not your vacation. It was usually the vacation of someone you hardly knew. You know what I mean...remember when your dad dragged out the screen (the one that felt like sandpaper) and out came the slide projector and the carousel of slides. You just KNEW no good was coming from that night...but I digress.

With that preamble, I ask you to indulge me just a little. It's not very often that your parents celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary, but that's why we fled to Phoenix last week, with Our Lady of BYU joining us, to celebrate my parents 50th. Technically their anniversary is 23 December, but given trying to coordinate calendars around that date, it made sense to celebrate at Thanksgiving. In order to spare you the pain/utter agony of an hour-by-hour recap, I'll be sparing in words and use a few pictures to tell the story:

Wednesday, 26 November
Dinner with my brother and his wife, my sister and her children, and my parents at my sister's house in Scottsdale. My brother made a really good paella. We had a good time talking - it's been years since we'd all been together.

Thursday, 27 November
Up at the crack of down in order to drive halfway to Los Angeles (OK to Peoria, AZ) in order to run a 5K, sponsored by the Arizona Roadracers. My brother-in-law, Wes, joined PTL in this race - this was PTL's first.


PTL put forth a great effort. He struggled during the first mile and I have to admit, so did my patience. But karma got me back for just as I was about to lose my patience, I tripped on my shoelace and went down hard. Tore up my right leg below the knee, but I hopped right back up, sufficiently humbled. If I hadn't calmed down, I would have missed the opportunity to cross the finish line with my son. Crossing the finish line with him was the highlight of the day.


Later in the day it was off to my brother's in the New Mexico-adjacent city of Queen Creek for Thanksgiving dinner. Again, my brother's chef skills were on display. He and his wife did a great job with dinner. Once again, good to be with family.


Friday, 28 November

Lunch in Mesa with my parents - Mexican food. Friday night it was back to my brother's (another endless drive) to do something my dad hasn't done in an estimated eighteen years. He watched a movie from start to finish. We watched "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and it was a kick. My dad laughed and laughed. That was one of the highlights of this whole trip. This movie was made a few years after my parents were first married and this was a wonderful way for them to relive memories. It was a little painful for my kids - it's a long movie and awfully different from movies today but there's no beating the horror that is the late Ethel Merman in this movie.

Saturday, 29 November
Hang on - we're almost done. Spent some time hanging with my sister-in-law and her family, as well as my inlaws who had just flown in from Hawaii. It was great to see them too. Saturday afternoon it was time for the event we were least looking forward to (OK, the event I was least looking forward to) and that was family pictures. We trundled off to Gilbert to take said pictures. There were two other families at the same spot when we got there and we are all dressed the same - blue jeans and black shirts. Ridiculous.

My sister and her three children

My parents - the reason we all got together

After the photo fiesta, we had one more family dinner and then it was back to my parents for a night of memories and honoring my mom and dad. It was an amazing night.

Sunday, 30 November
Not much to report - up at 330AM in order to make a 6AM flight on stupid Ted, again, back to Chicago. We were off on time and with only one dog this time. We got to O'Hare about 45 minutes before the snow started to fall. And fall it dead. It didn't stop until around 1PM today. Five inches of snow on the ground. More to come this week. Umm...winter is here. Funny though, even though it was gorgeous weather in Phoenix and we came back to snow, it wasn't enough to make me want to move back to AZ anytime soon.