Traditions

We're not quite done with Thanksgiving weekend yet, but we just finished off the big family extravaganza part of it! We've had quite the holiday of relatives, having seen Sacha's parents, my parents, my brother and sister, two sets of aunts, uncles, and cousins, my grandma, her caregiver, and, of course, ourselves. Here are some of the high points:

Wednesday: Sacha, having worked two long days on Monday and Tuesday, had Wednesday off! We celebrated by making a nice breakfast and then going out for a walk. It was a rare treat to spend time with all four of us together on a weekday. We went out to a park bordered by two big rivers and spent some time wandering around the paved paths. It was lovely. Then, we went home and met up with my dad and brother, who had just arrived in town.

After that, I went to work and then met up with Sacha and the kids at my grandma's house for a big pre-Thanksgiving dinner with all the family. Apa even consented to come along, which was awesome. We ate ourselves silly and then rolled home and collapsed into bed.

Thursday: I got up early and went to do the local Turkey Trot with my sister and brother. Somehow, this has become a tradition for the three of us and we've done it for at least the last five years, if not longer. I discovered that, apparently, I can still run four miles! I decided to give it a shot and I actually ran the whole way. My siblings were nice enough to wait for me to come chugging along to the finish and then we all went out to coffee together. We hardly ever get to spend time together these days, so it was really nice to reconnect.

The rest of the day flew by - Sacha and the baby and her parents went on a quick hike while Mateo and I went downtown for an hour or so. Then, after lunch and such, we went over to my aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Mateo got to play with lots of different relatives and had tons of fun with his cousins, who are 7 and 10 years old. They have quite the little mutual admiration society and it is just so sweet to see them playing together. Then, again, we ate ourselves silly, staggered home, and collapsed into bed.

Friday: Both kids slept in until 8 am! I guess there is some benefit to putting them down at 10 pm, even if they are hysterically tired by that time. But I digress. I was expecting to be so sore from the run that I couldn't move, but I actually felt pretty okay. I mean, I was sore, but not like I was expecting. I guess all those exercise videos I've been doing (ever since my plan to start running again crashed and burned) have actually helped my state of physical fitness.

Anyway, we spent Friday toodling around town. Sacha's dad and Mateo and I went to meet the rest of the fam at the art museum while Sacha and the baby and her mom went shoe shopping. Then, we came home and cleaned the house, because everyone was coming to our place that night. My aunt and uncle were kind enough to send all the leftovers home with us, so we made a big leftover dinner for everybody. Again, we ate ourselves silly, but we didn't have to stagger home this time. We just rolled to our beds and collapsed.

Saturday: Kids again slept until 8! Mental note: must stop putting them to bed at 10 pm. The sleeping in was nice though, I'm not going to lie. Sacha and her dad went off for a mega-trip to costco and Sacha's mom and the kids and I hung out with my parents and my brother, all of whom were on their way out of town. Then, after everyone returned and the kids napped, we went to the zoo. Who knew that zoo lights starts right after Thanksgiving? We got to see the whole light show, plus the baby elephant! Then we headed towards home, stopped for dinner, and then Sacha's parents packed up and headed home themselves. And now, the kids are sleeping, the house is quiet, and we're about to crash, ourselves.

Tomorrow, the plan is to have brunch with friends in the morning and dinner with Apa in the evening. In the middle, hopefully we'll be able to get ready for the week.

One more thing: We never managed to go around the table and say what we were thankful for on Thanksgiving, but I would be hard pressed to think of a year that I felt more thankful than I do this year. An amazing marriage, adorable kids, a house we love in a neighborhood we love in a city we love, great friends, wonderful families, stable jobs, enough to eat, stability in general - for all of these things, which we experienced in abundance this weekend, we give big thanks.