Monday, December 26, 2011

(Holiday) Weekend highlights

Fri am we headed back to VA, arriving just after 11am. We visited with Spouse's mom for an hour, then met up with Kerry & Hugh, Kelly, George, and Lisa for our 3rd annual Christmas lunch at Joe's Place. We had pizza and hippy rolls and shared a great time together. Then back at Spouse's mom's we visited with her and Spouse's sister, niece and nephews. That evening Spouse & I took his mom to dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant: Cantina Mexicana (aka: Taco House).
We had a wonderful dinner and got to see the proprietor and our friend Juan. Unfortunately Gloria wasn't there.

Sat I drove out west almost an hour to visit my cousin Nez and her family. It had been about 18 months since I'd seen her. Just after I saw her last she had breast cancer surgery followed by months of chemo. I wasn't able to be with her then, but really really enjoyed spending the day with her on Sat. We sat around and talked, laughed, drank coffee, snacked, and just reconnected. It was really wonderful. That night Spouse's whole family came together at his sister's house to celebrate his mom's 82nd birthday, on Christmas Eve. My dear friend Kathryn came to the party as well, and we had a bunch of good laughs. She is the heterosexual, African American, female version of me!

Christmas morning was quiet, with Spouse & me having coffee and a slice of pumpkin roll with his mom. Later, his sister, niece and nephews came over and we had breakfast together. Later I showered, dressed, and picked up my aunt Mary and brought her back to Spouse's mom's house where we had our little gift exchange. Then we all went over to Spouse's sister's house for Christmas dinner. We had rigatoni, gnocchi, meatballs, sausage and 'gravy' (tomato sauce) and salad. My aunt Mary brought my absolute favorite cake for dessert: hummingbird cake. It was a very nice Christmas evening.

It seems the last few Christmases I've tried to schedule visits with friends and family like this, but they were interrupted by illness or inclement weather. Fortunately this year all my plans worked out! It was a great holiday, filled with friends, family, food, festivities and fun.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You make day-to-day life extraordinary.

Ron said...

The best way to celebrate Christmas is to reconnect with friends and family and share the love. I'm glad you were able to do that this year.