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We had a nice Thanksgiving and extended weekend. We host each year, and the group changes depending on whether my brother is celebrating with his wife's family or not (they alternate Xmas and Thanksgiving between the two families). This year my parents, Carlos and my sister and oldest nephew joined us. Her two youngest boys went with their dad to his family in RI.
Food was good and the experience was laughably predictable. We are the national lampoons family. Mina had a lot of fun with everyone. At one point my Dad turned on netflix on our TV and started Ghostbusters playing. Thankfully Mina was napping upstairs in her room at the point where Sigourney Weaver is grabbed in her armchair and terrifyingly is dragged into her kitchen. Hello Dad?! Mina was awake for the ending fight scene and freaking LOVED it! She asked the next day to "see the pink lady [Gozer] talking" and remarked "nice costumes"! She's met ghostbusters and Stay Puft at various conventions before, so she is old hat at this kind of thing.
On Friday we visited the http://www.masshort.org/Festival-of-Trees . Mina fell asleep on the way, so we drove around and let her nap, deciding to pick up our tree at http://www.baconstreetfarm.com/. I can't believe they are celebrating their 75th year in business. As a kid this is where we always got our tree (I lived nearby until age 9). She woke and we had lunch at the http://www.bakeryonthecommon.com/menu.html before going to the Elm Bank Reservation. She loved the huge horses for the carriage ride and had fun looking at trees and meeting santa. Mostly though, she was happy to see some dogs being walked on the property. Our tree was put up and decorated a couple of days later.
My 20th highschool reunion was that night, and I went with an old, good friend that I am still close with. Awkward! The class officers planned a swanky (expensive) dinner dance at the Westin Waltham. I bought my ticket as did Melanie, and then a month or so later the 'Rebel Reunion' invites went out via Facebook. It was a free shindig at a local bar with free apps and a cake. Melanie and I ended up doing both: dinner and socializing at the hotel and then hitting the bar for chatting for a couple of hours. My friends were mostly at the bar, and I did have the most fun connecting there. It was nice also having a couple of old guy friends compliment me on my aging (or apparently lack of it). My old long-term high school boyfriend was there, and I haven't seen him since before I was pregnant with Mina. It was nice to catch up. I can appreciate how the organizers were upset about the alternate event. At the same time, they didn't solicit any feedback before planning such a swanky/expensive/exclusive affair. You can't make everyone happy in a class of 400+ kids. They did request feedback from the folks *at the reunion*, so they will plan the next one in 5 years at a bar, with a similar pricetag. I think they should also take feedback from the folks that didn't go to the hotel, but whatever. After dinner things proceeded to get cliquish, just like high school. Kind of to be expected. I was one that had some core friends groups, mostly the outsiders. Also doing theater/dance stuff though, I did meet and become friendly with a lot of the 'popular' kids. Kind of like in my professional life, I can communicate with lots of different groups. I did spend a good amount of time chatting with an old classmate who now lives in Lexington (over near Nepenthe and Cannongirl actually) and we are going to make some plans at some point).
We had appointments at http://www.yelp.com/biz/dhr-stylists-cambridge on Saturday, and planned to use a giftcard we won at http://www.wagamama.us/ for lunch. We discovered the heat in my car wasn't working (!) and planned to get it fixed Monday (turns out I needed a flush and new thermostat, thankfully only a $220 repair). We were around the house in the afternoon, and decorated the tree. Mina is having a lot of fun taking off and putting back ornaments, and she keeps taking off lights and holding the bulbs up to her eyes.
We had a nice mix of social and time at home, which was just amazing. I'm hoping to have a mostly-chill holiday season. We'll see if we can accomplish that! :)
Food was good and the experience was laughably predictable. We are the national lampoons family. Mina had a lot of fun with everyone. At one point my Dad turned on netflix on our TV and started Ghostbusters playing. Thankfully Mina was napping upstairs in her room at the point where Sigourney Weaver is grabbed in her armchair and terrifyingly is dragged into her kitchen. Hello Dad?! Mina was awake for the ending fight scene and freaking LOVED it! She asked the next day to "see the pink lady [Gozer] talking" and remarked "nice costumes"! She's met ghostbusters and Stay Puft at various conventions before, so she is old hat at this kind of thing.
On Friday we visited the http://www.masshort.org/Festival-of-Trees . Mina fell asleep on the way, so we drove around and let her nap, deciding to pick up our tree at http://www.baconstreetfarm.com/. I can't believe they are celebrating their 75th year in business. As a kid this is where we always got our tree (I lived nearby until age 9). She woke and we had lunch at the http://www.bakeryonthecommon.com/menu.html before going to the Elm Bank Reservation. She loved the huge horses for the carriage ride and had fun looking at trees and meeting santa. Mostly though, she was happy to see some dogs being walked on the property. Our tree was put up and decorated a couple of days later.
My 20th highschool reunion was that night, and I went with an old, good friend that I am still close with. Awkward! The class officers planned a swanky (expensive) dinner dance at the Westin Waltham. I bought my ticket as did Melanie, and then a month or so later the 'Rebel Reunion' invites went out via Facebook. It was a free shindig at a local bar with free apps and a cake. Melanie and I ended up doing both: dinner and socializing at the hotel and then hitting the bar for chatting for a couple of hours. My friends were mostly at the bar, and I did have the most fun connecting there. It was nice also having a couple of old guy friends compliment me on my aging (or apparently lack of it). My old long-term high school boyfriend was there, and I haven't seen him since before I was pregnant with Mina. It was nice to catch up. I can appreciate how the organizers were upset about the alternate event. At the same time, they didn't solicit any feedback before planning such a swanky/expensive/exclusive affair. You can't make everyone happy in a class of 400+ kids. They did request feedback from the folks *at the reunion*, so they will plan the next one in 5 years at a bar, with a similar pricetag. I think they should also take feedback from the folks that didn't go to the hotel, but whatever. After dinner things proceeded to get cliquish, just like high school. Kind of to be expected. I was one that had some core friends groups, mostly the outsiders. Also doing theater/dance stuff though, I did meet and become friendly with a lot of the 'popular' kids. Kind of like in my professional life, I can communicate with lots of different groups. I did spend a good amount of time chatting with an old classmate who now lives in Lexington (over near Nepenthe and Cannongirl actually) and we are going to make some plans at some point).
We had appointments at http://www.yelp.com/biz/dhr-stylists-cambridge on Saturday, and planned to use a giftcard we won at http://www.wagamama.us/ for lunch. We discovered the heat in my car wasn't working (!) and planned to get it fixed Monday (turns out I needed a flush and new thermostat, thankfully only a $220 repair). We were around the house in the afternoon, and decorated the tree. Mina is having a lot of fun taking off and putting back ornaments, and she keeps taking off lights and holding the bulbs up to her eyes.
We had a nice mix of social and time at home, which was just amazing. I'm hoping to have a mostly-chill holiday season. We'll see if we can accomplish that! :)
