It was a relatively quiet Thanksgiving with the family this year, and there were moments I wished we had not bothered, but as a whole I think this year is safely at the top of the list for best holidays ever. Jen and I headed north to Lake City like we've done almost every year and spent Thanksgiving with my family. My oldest sister generally spends Thanksgiving with her in-laws but occasionally comes up for the long weekend on Thursday night. This year they stayed home with their two girls and two dogs. My other Sister works in a casino and had to work all weekend so we only saw her for one day the whole weekend, and contact with her was limited because of the 'Great Shopping Adventure' on Friday. That left just Jen and I with Mom and Dad, Grandpa, one cousin, and my Aunt and Uncle all of whom live in Kalkaska (a town not too far from my parents).
Thursday morning was spent getting ready for company and beginning the preparations for the big meal, which I did very little of for a change. The afternoon was spent in idle conversations about everything from politics to basic daily life and what the 'kids' (my generation of the family) were up to these days. There was a small argument between the parents, no holiday is complete without one, and some dirty looks between my aunt and uncle a time or two but all in all it was a quiet peaceful holiday.
Friday Jen and I slept in and spent the afternoon hanging out with an old friend of mine from high school. It's been about 3 years since we've seen Doug so there was much to catch up on. It still amazes me that we can go for years without talking or seeing each other and within a few minutes of seeing each other again it's like we never lost touch in the first place. We go WAY back, like all the way to preschool, and we've been friends almost the entire time. Even growing up we would be inseparable for a while, then go do our own thing for a few years, and eventually always ended up hanging out again like we had been best friends all along. Those kinds of friendships are rare, at least in my life, and Doug and I have decided to stay in closer contact from now on. We'll see how well we can pull this off.
Saturday was suppose to be a quiet day to hang out around the house and help Dad with a few projects, like pulling wires to the basement so he could finish installing the new boiler, hanging pictures in the Bird Room, and a few others he didn't share details about. Instead, since he spent Friday shopping with Mom and Heather, he was outside most of Saturday working on a welding 'side job' that needed to be done this weekend. This allowed me some time to work on homework, try to get Mom's computer problems resolved, and hang out with Jack again. I had a copy of Unconditional... that needed to be delivered and I knew he was having family up for the holiday so I waited 'till Saturday to call the house. I left a message with his wife Saturday morning who said she was home and I could drop it off any time. I explained that I really wanted to hand it to him, mostly because I wanted to see his reaction I admit, and she said she would have him give me a call when he got home. About 3 he called and said he was available till 5ish ... Jen and I headed into town.
My intent was to drop it off, introduce Jen, stay for a few minutes, and then be on our way back to Mom and Dad's. Instead we ended up hanging out for about an hour and a half. He spent some time getting to know Jen, basic stuff, in his own way telling her 'thank you', and eventually asked me what I had for him (I had not yet given him the book). I handed it to him, envelope with letter on top, and for the first time ever got the chance to watch him read one of my letters. That was an interesting experience. He was a little taken back by the fact that I had written a book, I'm not sure what he was expecting the 'writing project' to be but a printed novel was not top of his list apparently. He had the 'poker face' on for most of it but either chose not to or simply couldn't hide the smile. He was excited to read it and I suspect that given his love for reading and the fact that it's only 216 pages he will fly through it in only a couple of days. Will be interesting to see his reaction to both the story and the writing. So far the only opinion I've gotten other than my own was from Jen, not exactly an unbiased take on whether it's any good or not. But then Jack's review will be somewhat biased as well.
I was quieter than I probably should have been hanging out with him but I was content to sit back and listen to the conversation instead. The whole time I kept thinking how cool it was that the two most important people in my life had finally met. The story line of Unconditional... has just gone from 97% to 98% fiction though the cast of characters still remains 95% based on real people in my life. Had it just been Jack and I it probably would have been a different conversation but given the two additional people I didn't go down that road and I suspect he decided to hold off on any of his questions for another time. I am guessing reading the book will bring up a few anyway. In any case it was nice to hang out with them for a bit and though I'm a little bummed it will be the last I see of him until sometime in February at the earliest, he'll be wintering in Florida for a few months, I learned a few things, got my much needed hug, and walked away with a smile. I just hope he checks his e-mail while in Florida otherwise it could be a really long two months.
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