I’m officially on vacation for Thanksgiving and I am committed to enjoying every minute of it. This is supposed to be the slow time in the work of public accounting, but for reasons I cannot disclose at this time, work has been incredibly exhausting and all the time I was going to spend getting ahead and preparing for next year is now occupied with another task. It will all work out okay, I will just be very busy…as usual.

Other than that, I’ve been trying to get some Christmas shopping done. I’m pretty much done with the close family, but now I’m just doing some final online shopping and gift cards. I’m staying pretty closely on budget. The hardest part is walking in all these stores and not buying things for myself. But it’s the season to give, and I really do enjoy the act of picking out the perfect gift for everyone.

As the official Scrooge of the Alfredson family, I have finally convinced my mother to not cook the entire Thanksgiving dinner for only 3 people. A typical Thanksgiving dinner at the Alfredson might include all or some of the following dishes: A turkey large enough to feed 10, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, green been cassarole, cranberry cassarole, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, 2 kinds of bread and 2 pies. This amount of food (give or take a few dishes) would be prepared for 3 people or 5 (since the nephews won’t eat the food they don’t count) and I just think it’s ridiculous. I also don’t care for turkey.

So this year, we are having steaks and other nice things to go with steaks. I believe the green been cassarole (which is special, not the dumb kind everyone makes) and baked potatoes are still on the menu. It will be great. Hopefully there will also be lots of wine and other festive holiday beverages.

Now, it’s only Christmas I have to work on. I’m not making any headway on that, but it’s only because my sister has the ultimate negotiating tool, grandchildren) and I am forced to tag along, mostly unwelcomed, to whatever plans my parents make for me. They pretend to care about what I want to do, but really they just want to see the grandchildren, so I obediently follow along. Tis the season I suppose.

Well I officially survived the Taylor Band Reunion this past weekend, and it really was quite a lot of fun. I must say that most people I like speaking to and want to see I’m fortunate enough to be able to see on a semi-regular basis…at least around the holidays. It was nice to see friends that have moved far away, and to reconnect with some people from a few different graduating years. Even though some in our group had a negative attitude about certain things, I think overall everyone had fun. I really enjoyed getting to meet people’s spouses and fiances (so many fiances!) and see how people grew up.

Friday night I met up with Mike, Rob & Elizabeth to go do mid-town Houston for a few beers. It was really quite fun. For years everyone complained about coming to Houston because it was boring, but I’m finding out that Houston has just as much fun to offer as Austin does…it’s just a matter of leaving your house. People think Austin is some kind of magically fun place…but really I can’t honestly say I like it that much. I think Houston is a better place to live long term…but maybe that’s just me.

Saturday was busy with the football game and the reception. We got to see the JET Band march a classic Louie drill and see the Mustangs win a football game….something that didn’t happen very often while I was there. The receiption was good and in a really cool location. I don’t think any of us ate $20 worth of “heavy” appetizers as we were promised  but I certainly participated in the cash bar to the best of my ability. Good thing it was a good night, otherwise I would have needed to hit up an ATM just to make it through!

The weekend was really exhausting, and the time that wasn’t spent catching up with friends was spent hanging out with my parents, playing the Wii and shopping. My parents really love the Wii, and it was really fun playing it with them. I think they’re sold on the idea of purchasing one. It’s always good to be home and have someone else worry about the details for a while. I miss that.

In fact, by the time I got back home Sunday night I was so exhausted and emotionally drained that as soon as I walked in the door I burst out crying. I’m sure that wasn’t really the greeting Josh was expecting, but he was really sweet. I think it was just really hard for me to spend an entire weekend with people who know me and that I have so many fond memories from way back when and then leave to come back to a place where, realistically I don’t really have any friends. Mike and Chelsea are both moving away in May…leaving me with no one who actually knows anything about me other than Josh. There’s a big part of me who still wants to be in high school hanging out with a huge group of people who all have the same interests as me. I’m not saying I want to be in high school…just that I want that feeling of belonging again.

But, as everyone gets older our lives take us where they take us and we make the decisions that seem right at the time. Seeing all my old friends back together again was really a great feeling, and really makes me want to commit to staying in touch as time goes on, because I think we’ll never has friends as good as we had back then. You can’t get the same results when you don’t spend every afternoon, Friday night Saturday night and many evenings in between together. So, among the many things I have to thank the Taylor Band, Mr. Janda and so many countless band marchers for, it would have to be what a friendship truly means.

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