I picked my sister up from the airport on Wednesday in kind of a panicked state. Her plane was a half-hour early, so I was still at my apartment when she called to tell me that she had landed. I met her outside baggage claim, she said she didn’t wait too long. I guess de-boarding time and all that. We went to Redmond to meet up with Dave for lunch, who was unusually quiet and well-behaved. I think he was more nervous than he let on. But lunch was fine, and then Tracy and I shopped for a while before we headed back to my apartment. (We both managed to find Christmas gifts for our mom, who is the most impossible person in the world to shop for, so hooray for that.) After chilling out at my apartment for a couple of hours, we went back to the airport to pick up my folks. They were supposed to get in at 7:00, and when we were at lunch, I could’ve sworn that I told Dave to meet me at my apartment between 7:30 and 8:00. I guess there was some miscommunication there (my sister heard the same thing Dave did, so apparently I was wrong), and my phone rang at 7:00, which was Dave, asking me to go downstairs and let him into the parking garage. Oops. I told him to go to the Irish pub around the corner and have a beer, and I’d call him as soon as I collected my parents and got back to the city.
Meanwhile, back at the airport, Tracy and I found my folks – my dad managed to make it almost 5 minutes before asking me if I had gained any weight. I suppose that’s progress. We got back to my place, met up with Dave, and went to dinner. That actually went pretty well. My mom seems to really like Dave, and he even got a couple of laughs out of my dad, which is amazing. After dinner, we got my parents settled in at their hotel (a block & a half from my apartment), and called it a night.
Thanksgiving Day, we loaded up the car with goodies and headed out to Dave’s house. And I must say, I think Mags and I managed to pull off a mighty impressive Thanksgiving feast. (Dave gets props too – he made the house look great before we all arrived.) But I’m SO glad that Mags was there to make the turkey, because it turned out amazing, and there’s no way I could’ve pulled that off. Everyone seemed to really like the food, and the families all seemed to like each other, so yay! I was incredibly stressed out and snapped at people a lot because I kept feeling like my family was nitpicking every little thing I did – even down to things I can’t control, like why is it so cold and rainy in Seattle. Dave, bless his heart, kept refilling my spiced rum and diet coke, which helped to relax me a lot. After dinner, we played Cranium and Pictionary, which was hilarious. My dad is the most random pictionary player ever. He draws boobs on a stick and we’re supposed to guess that that means “Miss America.” And his cars look like space shuttles. It’s kind of insane. Makes for a fun evening, though.
OH! The biggest breakthrough of the day: Greta, the semi-feral cat, actually let me pet her. I think this is all due to Mags, who is like Dr. Doolittle with animals. She had gotten to pet Greta, which may have made her realize that humans are not all bad. So when I managed to get her to eat a piece of turkey out of my hand, she let me pet her while she ate it. That was so cool. Who knows, she might actually turn out to be a normal cat someday.
Friday, it finally stopped raining, so I dragged my family through Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. We were going to do the Underground Tour of Seattle, which I have wanted to do for ages, but the last tour was sold out. This is the 2nd time that I’ve tried to go on this tour and not been able to (the other time was because we missed the start of the last tour of the day), so I’m starting to think that’s a sign that I’m not meant to go. We were all pretty exhausted by early in the evening, so we got deli food from one of my local grocery stores, rented “Cold Mountain” (had to fast-forward through the sex scene at the end because there is No Nudity when my dad is in the room), and chilled out.
This morning, everyone is getting ready to leave, which means there is no sleep to be had in my apartment. My sister has already left, and my parents will be going soon. As soon as I get back from dropping them off at the airport, I plan on taking a nice 4 or 5 hour nap.
Yeah that durn Underground tour. I tried once and it was closed (on a holiday??) Can't believe I haven't been there yet.You need to post some new pictures! 🙂
My family and I played Taboo at the table this year after Thanksgiving dinner, and it was SO funny and great. I'm starting to think that board games bring out very good things in families — it's like a new way of stress-free interaction…