Every Thanksgiving weekend, we stuff it to the gills: our bellies (hey, I’m an eater!), the good times and the busy – all into those 4-5 happy little days. This year, the festivities were a little, well, eventful, but overall, our little unit had a good time catching up with family, even when we had to do it in separate shifts.
(Read: With his grandmother having had cataract surgery and his uncle’s wife on her death bed, Dave opted to take Zoe down to Olympia/Vancouver – on the train, no less! in the freezing cold snowy weather, no less! - while I took Maggie down to my folks’ for a small fete with the WA-contingent of the St. Pete side.)
We began our respective adventures on Wednesday. After dropping Maggie off at daycare, I drove Dave and Zoe to the train station, then headed in to work for a bit. They had a great ride down to Olympia where Auntie Tammy collected them and brought them home to warm up and spend the night. After lunch, Maggie and I hit the snow-covered roads for Buckley where we met up with Nana and Pepere.
Thursday, Maggie and I, Nana and Pepere were joined by Auntie Erin and Uncle Chris. Maggie ate up the spotlight – that girl has never known the glory of adoring fans without her older sister sharing the stage. I think she was OK with her solo act.
Zoe and Dave, in the meantime, jumped aboard with the Alonzos four for the trek down to Vancouver. Dinner at McCormick & Schmick’s ended up being a popular and drawn-out idea, but I hear that Zoe was a patient and fantastic diner. It’s been a while since she’s had her older cousins to herself and I’m pretty sure she didn’t mind not having to share!
Friday, after a jaunt to the hospital with Pepere (we’ll leave it at this: it was scary there for a bit, but we’re all happy to have him back to his old self without a trace of any life-altering developments), Maggie and I traveled down to Vancouver to join up with Dave and Zoe. I have add that Maggie was a pretty fantastically-behaved visitor at the hospital and still talks about Pepere’s boo-boo, though only matter-of-factly.
I’m sorry to report that on Saturday, amidst the preparations for the Coffield family Thanksmas (T-day dinner for all and Xmas opening fun for the kiddos), the Alonzos four were met with the tragic loss of their sweet new pup, Kuma. While it was heartbreaking to witness their loss (being at a total loss to alleviate it), I must say that I admired how they loved and supported each other; they are good people who know how to take care of each other.
The rest of the day went along relatively uneventfully. Dinner was eaten, gifts were unwrapped, games were played. We were all a little off-kilter, but overall it was so good to be around the family.
Sunday morning, Dave’s uncle Dale’s wife, Judy, gave up her long-fought battle with illness and passed away. While we’ll miss her and are worried for Dale to be alone, there is a quiet sense of relief that she is no longer in pain and that Dale will maybe begin to heal, as well.
And, just to make sure the weekend had a bit of everything mixed in, Zoe had a 2-hour tummy flu just to make the car ride home a bit more interesting.
I can’t really complain about the holiday – in the end, our little family faired pretty well in the midst of lots of sad and hard tidings – but I have to say that we were truly relieved to come home, the four of us together, to find our house still standing. And for that, I’m truly thankful.
Some photo highlights to bring the tone up a notch:
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