Staycation

Robert had a nice, long Thanksgiving break of 13 days.  My break wasn’t as long at 4 days, but it was still so nice.  We didn’t go anywhere for the holiday, and Robert and I noted that this was the longest we had ever spent at home with each other.  We’ve spent week-long holidays together going out of town or hosting people, but we had never spent this much time together without either of us having to work or school.  We definitely enjoyed the time together and tried to soak up every minute.

I got off work at my normal time on Wednesday.  We ate a quick dinner and headed to church for a Thanksgiving Eve service.  I had never had one before, but it seemed fitting to have a service to show God our gratitude for saving our souls and blessing our lives.  After songs, a sermon, and communion  Anna, Forrest, Robert, and I decided to head to Dairy Queen.  It was very to catch up with them.  An evening with them is a guarantee for laughs and lots of talk about football between the two men.

Every day of break started out with about an hour of reading and journaling while eating breakfast and sipping coffee.  I could get used to that!  Too bad doing that would mean waking up at 6:00am.  I’ll become a morning person one day, right?  Robert and I go for a 30 minute walk every evening after work, but while we were on break we bumped it up to an hour a day and went during daylight to soak up some sunshine.  Surprisingly enough, our area of NC is very grey and dreary.  I would say it’s grey about 80% of the time, so when we can get some sun it’s nice to be able to take advantage of it.  We also watched lots of How I Met Your Mother and napped just about every day – always good in my book.  I always made a lot of progress on my afghan.  All of my granny squares are complete, and I’ve started sewing them together!

On Thursday, our walk was a hike through a trail and a walk at a local park.  We only saw three other people the whole time.  Apparently everyone else was busy cooking already.  We came home and whipped up our contributions to the Thanksgiving feast: mashed potatoes, dressing, and creamed corn.   We ate dinner with five friends from Sunday School and really enjoyed it.  Good food and good friends.

On Friday, Robert and I went over to see dear friend Andrea and her sweet girls.  Hanging with them is always a treat.  Robert became good friends with their dog, Honey.  Quote from the day, “It’s a law that you can’t chew gum until you’re 5.  It’s another law that you can’t get your ears pierced until you’re 8.”  Classic.  We went back over there again that evening to watch a movie with Andrea, Jason, Anna, and Forrest.  We knew we wanted a Christmas movie, so Robert and I suggested Snowball Express.  It’s a classic that nobody has ever seen. Somehow it became a traditional movie in my family, and Robert has grown to love it as well.  It’s definitely not going to win any awards, but everybody laughed throughout it, so I’d say it’s a winner.

On Saturday, Robert’s boss took us out to eat at Shuckers to thank Robert for his hard work and to celebrate his graduation.  Robert enjoyed his salmon, and my steak was very good.  It was nice to get to know Kevin since Robert has spent so much time with him.  After dinner we headed over to Anna and Forrest’s apartment to watch The Iron Bowl.  Anna and I were thankful to have each other to talk to and to work on our craft projects together.  Forrest and Robert were thankful to have someone to talk statistics and sports facts.  We ended up leaving after the third quarter.  Anna and I both fell asleep, but the guys made it through and ended the game with a “Roll Tide” text.

With Anna and Forrest's guinea pig, Einstein

Sunday was church, of course.  Robert is teaching Sunday School next week which will be fun.  Sunday evening we went over to Desiree and Stephen’s house to watch The Hobbit with Anna and Forrest.  Are you noticing a pattern here?  That’s right; we managed to spend a part of every day with Anna and Forrest during a break.  Sweet!  The movie was good, and I made more progress on my afghan during it.