Thanksgiving: the aftermath
Thanks have been given, turkey has been eaten, and overall Thanksgiving can be declared to have been a success. Michele's parents are visiting for the holiday from Nebraska, so despite the geographical distance from our hometowns, we managed to have some family time over the holiday. Hope you all had relaxing and spiritually uplifting holidays as well.
A few items of interest (to me, at least):
- we went to the Frederick Meijer Gardens last week (I had not yet seen them). I was quite pleasantly surprised. Currently featured at the Gardens is a big Christmas-around-the-world exhibit of Christmas trees representing the holiday traditions of a large variety of countries. Although I had a hard time believing that there is that much of a distinction between, say, German and Austrian Christmas traditions, or between American and Canadian Christmas traditions, it was an excellent exhibit overall. I recommend making your way there before Christmas--it's the sort of thing that'll put you in a pleasant Christmas mood.
Oh, and France goes on record as having the Worst Christmas Tree Ever, with Italy coming in a close second. Go check out the exhibit and I think you'll agree.
- it was quite a surprise to check the news on Thanksgiving morning and read that the President had made an unannounced visit to Iraq. Color me exceedingly impressed. Nice speech, too.
- Michele and I assembled and decorated a Christmas tree yesterday! There is nothing quite so fun as a brightly-lit Christmas tree in the corner of the room. I don't think Michele was quite prepared for the truly vast number of Star Wars Christmas tree ornaments I unpacked. I did my best to arrange them tastefully--no more than one Star Wars ornament per tree branch.
- Since I stayed out in Michigan for the holiday, I missed my ten-year high school reunion last week. That's something of a disappointment, although I keep in more or less regular contact with a decent percentage of my graduating class (only 24 students total, I think?). I'm sure some of my blogging classmates will be along to let me know what I missed.
Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!
Comments
I don't really like Christmas, or what it's become at least, but I like decorating the Christmas tree. Our tradition is to listen to Handel's _Messiah_ during decoration, though we usually end up fast-forwarding it to the angel telling Mary she's pregnant and the Hallelujah chorus.
Speaking of different Christmas trees, I've been threatening to get a Christmas cactus since we moved out to the desert. I have since learned that there is truely such a thing, but I don't think it's the same thing I'm thinking of. Something about hanging ornaments from spindly needles seems funny to me...
I, too, "missed" my 10-year high school reunion last year. That's because I simply didn't go... but it sounds like you had a different high school experience than I did anyway, so you probably wanted to go. :-P
Posted by: pcg | December 2, 2003 12:20 AM