Thanksgiving, aka "Lotso' Family"

Okay, so first of all I'd like to point your attention over to the left side of my blog where my shiny new NaNoWriMo Winner's Badge proudly sits. See it, see it, see it?! :-) I'm so stinkin' happy that I did it. I'm taking a small break before I look at the novel again and start editing & polishing it. In the meantime I'll be working on that list of things that have been neglected in the wake of NaNo.

Last week we drove over to Sidney for Thanksgiving with a stop-over in Billings for a night at the hotel with a waterslide--it was a fun place and breaking the drive over into 2 days made it really nice. The drive back yesterday was all 8 hours of driving (10 hours total) in one shot and very tiring. I'm grateful that the road conditions were excellent though and we got the majority of the drive done in the daylight, which gets tough to do around here in the winter!

So, anyway, while we were in Billings I was able to see my friend Jami. I think I linked her blog in my earlier post. We've been friends since 3rd grade and honestly its a miracle we've kept in touch throughout the past however many years (stops to do the math....whoa that took me a while, its actually 23 years) and all of our moves and stuff. But, we hadn't seen each other for about ten years, so it was really nice to see her and meet her cute lil' kiddos and her hubby. And we had a wonderful dinner that Erik raved about for like two days afterwards.

After Billings we drove on to Sidney, which is where we lived for about four years but its where almost all of my family on my mom's side lives. It was great seeing everyone, and almost everyone was there minus a cousin in the military, and two who had to work--so I think we totalled somewhere around 40 for Thanksgiving dinner. It was crazy. But then one of my aunt's turns 60 this year (this week, actually I think) and so there was a surprise party for her too, and that was cool. My Grandma has big ol' house on a ranch outside of town and its a perfect place for large family get togethers and for hunting--the boys (Erik, my dad and my brother) managed to bag 4 deer total. It was my brother's first hunting and he got a really nice sized buck... I'm happy that our freezer will be full. :-) No wild game beats eastern Montana white tail, they are simply the best in my opinion.

It was a fun time spent with family and it reminded me that we'll be family no matter what, through thick and thin, and I'm grateful for them all. Its a long drive that I don't really like to do, but its worth it to be able to see family. :-) It was also nice to be able to spend more time with family that lives here--we are all usually so busy that we don't get that much time together. It is kind of bittersweet because my brother's girlfriend Nadine and baby Josephine are headed back to Germany on Friday and I probably won't see them until last spring. :-(

Here I am with Nadine, my sister Rosie & our Grandma Donna. My girls LOVE their Great Grandma Donna, especially Kera. She'd follow Grandma around everywhere all the time, it was really cute.

Now I'm home and trying to catch up on everything that I am so behind on--all the typical after trip chores plus the holiday stuff like cards and shopping and baking (yum!). Should be a busy week, I'll say. :-)