Thankful at Thanksgiving!

There was so much to be thankful for at Thanksgiving (and still thankful for!), but one of them was the opportunity to fly and visit Michael's sister and bro-in-law and his parents. We flew in Wed. night (supposed to arrive at 11:30 p.m.) but sat on the ground (at the gate) for 2 hours in Houston due to delays from the airport being shut down by storms earlier in the afternoon. We got in actually around 1:30 and then by the time we got to bed it was closer to 2:15 AM (for those who know me, this was a killer!) We stayed with Sarah (Michael's sister) and her husband, Rich.

Our sweet host and hostess

The next day, we celebrated Thanksgiving dinner and the parents came over as well as two of Rich's coworkers without family in the area.

The beautiful Thanksgiving table

Michael's mom and I

two of the three siblings

obligatory self-portrait

Jess, a coworker

One of Michael's favorite foods he talks about every time his family gets together is a baked brie appetizer with apricot glaze. Here, Sarah made one just for him but did the quick version with apricot jam and it tasted just as great!

Mandi (another coworker), Jess and Dad sample the baked brie

Michael's look of expectancy as he tastes the brie!

After dinner, we played Mexican Train dominoes. Michael even put together a spreadsheet to keep up the scores. It went well into the night...Rich finally won. And then, Sarah and I, out of the pure adventure of it, headed to the outdoor outlet malls that opened at midnight (the parking and lines to get into stores was crazy when we showed up and even worse when we left...and boy, it was freezing!) That made two nights in a row that we went to bed after 2:00 AM!

The next day, we went to the Smithsonian American Art Museum to see the Asher Durand paintings (he is an artist in the Hudson River School style which Mom Weyler loves so much). On the way, I again marveled at the culture and history in our nation's capital (and how much can be seen and done free--example, all the Smithsonian museums) Next time we go to visit Michael's family, we decided that we would go an extra couple of days for pure tourism reasons...even though we lived there for a year and a half, like many residents, you forget to take advantage of the tourist things until you are gone! Afterward, we walked around Chinatown a bit...and ended up eating at Legal Seafood.

This guy was making his own noodles

Washed out faces, but notice the signs to the restaurant. (remember, we are in Chinatown) That evening, we spent several hours decorating Sarah and Rich's house for Christmas!

Rich seemed to have a thing about crawling under Christmas trees! :)

another one...

Michael looking on

This is my favorite! Ever seen a pop-up tree? Well, we had not until last year. This year we took a video to time the "setting up" of this famous pop-up tree. (the blooper is authentic!)

TADA! (again) The tree is done...as is the rest of the house!