Thanksgiving 2008

It's Monday morning, December 1st, and I'm back at work after an exhausting 4 day mini-vacation. Travel included me, Hubby, Kiddo, Little Bit, The Dog, everything that goes with us, & a chocolate cake, crammed into my 1993 Toyota Corolla. We made a 2.5 hour trip in just over 2 hours, spent a lovely afternoon at the Boys & Girls club (rented for the occasion of a large family Thanksgiving) in Small Town USA munching on fabulous foods and kibitzing with extended family. Then a trip to Deep-in-the-Holler-Virginia for a three-day stay at GM's house - with her 6 cats & 2 dogs. Allergy H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks for me, but I managed to get some good fuzz therapy in, despite the sneezing and itchy eyes. I love me some kitty cats! Visit with GM was wonderful. Kiddo was her ever-present shadow and Little Bit ate like a champ the entire time we were there. It's always good to see GM - I absolutely adore her. Speaking of Little Bit - I have to share this. Our sleeping arrangement was such that Kiddo & GM shared the room with the 2 twin beds, Little Bit and I shared the double bed in the main bedroom, and Hubby (bless his now-aching neck) slept on the couch. Little Bit is a very active, and vocal sleeper. She chastised Kiddo in sleep for doing something she was not happy with, yelled "No!" at me several times for unknown reasons, smacked me in the face often and said, "Mommy! Wake up!"... She also flopped around like a fish out of water, asked for her blankie when she couldn't immediately lay her hands on it, her bunny if it was just beyond her reach, and had to touch me regularly just to make sure I was still there. Blankets in general were bad, and we had several arguments over this because I wanted to be covered up and she didn't; it was hard to strike a compromise. But I watched her sleep, watched her tug at her hair, watched her open her sleepy eyes and see me there, then lean over to kiss me and then go back to sleep. One night (I don't remember which one) after I thought she was good and asleep, I whispered to her, "I love you, [Little Bit]." After a brief pause, she whispered right back, "I love you, too, Mommy!" She kept her eyes shut while she said it and I never heard another word from her. It almost made me cry. So sweet. Some other things we did: gave kittens medicine and eye goop, washed dishes with Nani, puddled in the sink just because, had a bath in the sink, got rained on, ate at a little hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant, put up and decorated Nani's Christmas Tree, watched too much television, ate too many sweets, drank too much tea, coffee, hot chocolate, ran through Nani's supply of apples and many other wonderfully simple things. Anyway - we had a great time. And, aside from being awakened before the crack of dawn by kids who were just plain done with sleeping (read 5:30 AM!!!) we really had a nice visit. Kiddo and Little Bit just adore their Nani and I think she is pretty sweet on them, too! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too. TTFN JMS