twinkle, twinkle, in my eyes. . .

though time moves on, it just never changes how great it feels to indulge in a trip home to spend time with the ones you love. i can't believe how big all of the kids are geting. some have already heard the story about how gabe thought it was necessary to have plaid shorts if one is going to play golf. my dad - bless his heart - participated and i finally found of photo of the incredible duo pre-golf trip this summer. i think they make a very handsome pair, to be sure. it pales in comparison to my dad's favorite story, which was gabe tentatively puting forth that he may not get a hole in one this summer - it was his first year of golf, after all. there are some equally cute pictures of everyone in their thanksgiving garb which i hope to sweet talk my sister into sending to me so that i can post at some point. it was wonderful, despite the noted absence of a football game in my parents' backyard.

but i seem to have started with the end, rather than the beginning. it all started, of course, with matt's visit here the weekend before thanksgiving. as tends to be our style we did a lot of things and a lot of nothing - all to the best of our capacity. we visited places like otto's, the creamery, the ale house, and the ever antiquated but lovable duffy's tavern. we also went to the lacey/gary hotspot, northland bowl. you just can't compete with a good night of rock n bowl. all wonderful enough in their own right, but made even better by having matt in town. the original point of the trip, of course, was for the michigan state game hosted here on saturday. the game was - above all else - wickedly cold. finding ourselves without lacey and thus without a willing photographer, we had rachel snap this quick pic at the game. though not the most flattering shot of either of us, i like it nonetheless. and the black and white finish helps. trust me. (see, you almost didn't notice that i somehow gave myself a double chin, did you?)the one thing this picture doesn't reveal is how frigidly cold we both are by this point. this was probably shortly before rachel left. we followed soon thereafter, when the feeling in our toes was almost completely gone and the idea of ordering pizza and watching the texas tech game seemed like the most reasonable way to go. it was a lovely, lovely weekend, to be sure and i am already anxious for it to repeat (although we're not quite as good at basketball...).

the next string of events was with my karebear in minneapolis. again, far too much time had elapsed without us seeing one another, and i am noticing that i have zero picures from karen's trip out here in july. how is that possible? okay, it's probably not acually that hard to believe, since i never bring my camera anywhere. but you can trust me that karen was an absolutely fabulous host. we went to a very posh restaurant in the cities followed by drinks with karen's sister jenn and good friend greg. i enjoyed them both immensely. before meeting up with mom on tuesday, we did bowling paired with greasy bowling alley food. two thumbs up on all accounts.

it was this chain of evens that was followed by the thanksgiving festivities and time spent catching up with friends (hi, kris :) i have many, many things to be thankful for, indeed. not everyone gets to feel this extraordinarily loved.