The Turner/Hunter clan
Wow. What an action-packed few days we’ve had here.
Wednesday the kids were out of school so I had to figure out something fun to do with them. The weather was still warm (near 70, if I recall) and Travis wanted to go to the store to look at Legos. Rather than get in a car and drive there, I decided the family would bike there instead. The North Hills Target is about 6 miles from here via the greenway, so we hopped on our bikes and pedaled our way there and back, enjoying a smoothie after our window-shopping. That’s 12 miles of biking and a whole lot of fun!
Thursday was Thanksgiving, of course. Travis and I had started dismantling our garden Wednesday evening, so Thursday morning we finished the job. All the dying or dead plants were pulled up, the wire fencing that supported them was rolled up, the ground raked, and a weed-blocking cover placed over the garden. It was some work to clear it out but it was so satisfying to get it done!
We went to my parents’ house Thursday afternoon to enjoy Thanksgiving. My siblings and their families were there together, a rare event! As was the visit by my Aunt Nancy from Florida. We took lots of photos, ate a wonderful meal, and visited a bit in-between. It was a loud but happy holiday. As I get older I appreciate these all-too-brief occurrences more and more.
Friday morning we returned to my parents’, catching up some more. After lunch there, Kelly and I took the kids home for a short bit of downtime. We then hopped into the car and headed over to Iceplex for a few hours of ice skating, courtesy of a LivingSocial deal Kelly had bought a while ago. Though I was a bit unsteady for the first few laps by the time we got kicked off the ice I was really moving out there. Travis began by hugging buckets around the rink but he, too, was confidently striding across the ice before it was over.
I can’t remember how much fun we’ve all had skating before. I don’t think I stopped smiling the whole time!
We dropped Hallie off at a friend’s house for a sleepover before the rest of us stopped by Lily’s Pizza for supper. There’s nothing like a Buddha pizza and a New Belgium Ranger IPA after some vigorous skating! Except maybe for coming home and having your sweetie fall asleep on your shoulder while watching a movie with your kid on the couch.
This morning after breakfast, Kelly, Travis, and I actually got the Christmas decorations down from the attic and began to pre-stage them to be ready for when Hallie rejoined us. Once Hallie returned, we spent the next hour or so putting lights and ornaments on our tree. Around lunchtime I turned on the N.C. State game against Maryland and watched it as we worked until the second quarter when Maryland went up 28-7. That’s when I turned it off. Nothing I’d seen of State’s play up to that point gave me any hope the Wolfpack would win, though that’s what they eventually did, with a 56-41 score that’s more common in basketball than football!
We had plans that didn’t involve football, though: tickets to the North Carolina Symphony’s “Carolina Christmas” concert. What fun that was! Though we were three rows from the back, we thoroughly enjoyed the performance! I don’t think I’ve ever attended a bad symphony concert, but this one was probably the best one yet!
I Tweeted a bit facetiously that I got to sing while being accompanied by the North Carolina Symphony. While that was technically true, I was also accompanied by hundreds of other concertgoers as it was a group sing-a-long to Christmas songs. Oh well!
Once home, I fiddled with my satellite dish setup, successfully re-aiming my dish after it got out of alignment and solving a problem that’s vexed me for weeks. Now it’s off to bed.
There’s still one more day in the weekend, of course, but it will be cut a bit short for me. I travel tomorrow night up to Pittsburgh for my first day at the new job Monday. Though I won’t be traveling on a regular basis with this new position, I’ve noticed my travel anxiety heating up again. It’s not that I won’t enjoy my trip or that things won’t go perfectly, I always feel anxiety about making my flight and getting where I need to be on time. I leave at 6 PM so there will be plenty of time for me to ready to go.
It will be tough to let this weekend end, though. There was so much accomplished in it!