Rock Band is awesome

We had a really nice Thanksgiving.  Erik, Margaret, Greg, and Amanda came over in the early afternoon, and we had dinner around 3 or so.  Very yummy.  Greg brought his Xbox and Rock Band, so we played after dinner.  Love that game!  I’m really bad on the guitar, but drums and vocals were lots of fun.  We eventually moved on to Grand Theft Auto, another game I’d never even seen.  That one is just as much fun to watch (and heckle) as it is to play.  They stayed until around 11.  It was a long day, and we were super tired, but we had a really good time.

We didn’t get up as early as we’d planned Friday morning.  We’d hoped to get John’s parents’ house by about noon, but since it was after nine before we got up, that wasn’t possible.  (It’s a three-hour drive.)    We dropped the dogs off at the kennel and hit the road just after eleven.  We had a really nice couple of days in PA.   It was just the immediate family, so it was really low-key.  We had a late lunch when we arrived, and then John went to help his dad spackle and I took Emily and Molly to get movies and buy wine.   I always enjoy spending time with the girls, so it was nice to have errands to run.  Molly gets funnier every time I see her.

We rented two movies (P.S. I Love You and Dan in Real Life), but by the time dinner was over and we were ready for movies, we really only had time for one.  Emily wanted to see me cry, so we watched P.S. I Love You. It was…okay.  I did cry once, during the scene where she goes running to her mother, but otherwise, no tears.  Sorry, Em.  I’m sure the book is better.  John and I will try to watch the other movie soon.

Tom and Tania (Tanya?  I’m not sure) arrived just as the movie was ending (shortly after midnight Friday night).  We didn’t see as much of her as you might think since she has a test on Monday and spent most of Saturday studying for it.  She has to pass this test so she can start student-teaching and get her certification, and she was pretty stressed about it.  But we enjoyed the time we did get to spend with her.

We spent a couple of hours (no, I’m not exaggerating) Saturday afternoon setting up this year’s Brewer family picture.  Pat bought a giant inflatable Santa Claus that sits in a chair, waves, and talks.  We arranged ourselves around it, put on our Santa hats (sequined for the girls, furry for the boys), wrestled Mabel (the dog) into position, and then took picture after picture until we got one in which everyone was smiling, everyone’s eyes were open, the dog was looking (mostly straight ahead), and Molly wasn’t making a face.  We did eventually get that perfect picture.  And then we had Thanksgiving dinner.  Again (for everyone.  The Brewers had Thanksgiving dinner at Barbara’s house on Long Island on Thursday.).  But it was good, again, so it wasn’t a bad thing.  🙂

John and I left to come home around 9:20.  We made one stop (for Starbucks) just east of Harrisburg, and made it home in almost exactly three hours.  It didn’t feel that long, though.  We were in bed and asleep before 1am, totally exhausted.

Got up today about 10:30, after a very lazy morning listening to the rain.  We went out to pick the dogs up from the kennel, and we haven’t left the house again.  The fire is still going, John is still doing homework,  and I’ve been reading in between paragraphs.  It’s been a very pleasant day.