Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving

[Additional pictures for this post can be found on this site.]

There it was. It came and went, the beautiful holiday I've learned to love over the past few years, and this time the magical season was spent in Lakeside, Arizona. Sweet, warm Arizona.

I hadn't been to AZ since August, right before I went off to college, so by this time I had definitely started to miss my dear family there again. Tim has, two weeks ago actually, embarked on a mission in Texas, so he wasn't there this time. But Ren and Larry, Kim, Bekkah, Michelle and Nathan all greeted me at the airport when I arrived on Tuesday the 22nd. My journey there proved to be a little more complex than initially thought, due to the tremendous spike in airfare prices during the holiday week, and I ended up on a bus from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis (6 and a half hour), spending about 20 hours in a hotel by the bus depot there (it had room service and a swimming pool indoors, so I wasn't all that uncomfortable during my long wait), and then 3 and a half hour on a plane to Phoenix, before boarding the scariest propeller-driven aircraft in the world up to Show Low. I survived, and there at Show Low Airport (with its two daily flights) the whole family met me.

We drove to the new El Cupido's right away, to the one in Lakeside (hey, no trip to AZ is complete without a trip to the fantastic El Cupido's, and without having one of their "Special Ground Beef Chimichangas with Red Sauce". This is an indisputable fact.) and then we went to their house. Then I remembered. What's predominantly square, black, weighs about 30 pounds and was forgotten in all the excitement at the Show Low airport? If you guessed my suitcase full of all my stuff except for my music player, CD's and chemistry book, you were sadly enough correct. Driving in all haste back to the airport yielded no success; the airport closed after my flight had landed, and looked more desolate than the area surrounding Sioux Falls (which is well done, seeing as this city could be renamed "the-wannabe-city-in-the-middle-of-nowhere"). We drove back to the house, and I got Nate's room in the other side of the house to sleep in for the week. I was tired, and we went to bed around 10-ish.

Wednesday came. I woke up from Kim singing Britney Spears songs to the computer, and the occasional horrendous scream into my ears in her usual, annoying "Chriiiistiiiiaaaan!! Waaaaake uuuup!" manner. Oh, I'm not exactly loving it. She took me to the airport, which had fortunately opened by then. But, there were obstacles: Apparently, since my name wasn't Monique, and since I didn't have a pink suitcase, they couldn't release anything to me before the airline supervisor or whoever had returned. That meant 3 more hours before I could return for it, so Kim and I went down to Ren's work at the dentist's office, and we all went out for lunch at KFC. Now, that I can love.

The day passed as all days do, with the normal family stuff there always is, and after taping Lost for later viewings, the day was over. We had rented "Stealth", a newer release, and all gathered to watch it. It was okay, I guess, but nothing to yell yahoo about, certainly not a favorite either. Just a movie, explosions, revenge, air force secrets and lies, uncovering secrets and lies, movie over. Fine. Go to sleep.

Turkey Day - Day of Gobbles - T-Day: Thanksgiving had arrived for real. I woke up around 10, to the sound of a crowded kitchen and the initial cooking of whatever needed to be cooked. I shrugged, jumped out of bed, and got dressed. Ahh, the smell of Thanksgiving... The day passed by going with Larry and Michelle to Wal-Mart to buy various foods; including but not limited to pumpkin pie, apple pie, various kinds of pop, ice cream and multiple other last minute purchases. As it would turn out, this was by far everything, and Kim and I went to another store later to get the precious olives (which I can't stand), and beautiful whipped cream. That evening, around 5, we all gathered around the meal that has come to symbolize Thanksgiving around the world, with turkey, mashed potatoes, bean casserole, rolls, gravy and even a drink where they'd mixed orange juice with something like carbonated water. I gotta say, that was great!

We had the meal after a turn around the table of giving thanks for whatever you were thankful for, the only demand being that your three thanks had to be something previously unmentioned. A nice holiday, a time for thought, a time for appreciating all the good things in our lives, they are so many when you think of what life could have been. I'm thankful for my friends, both in Norway and here, my family, both in Norway and here, getting a good, private college education and the chance to pursue my goals and seek the meaning of my life, as well as all the little positive things in my life that I assure you, don't go unnoticed. Thank you.

The meal was followed of an intense game of "oh, heck", which I was winning all the while till I was passed brutally by Larry and his ferocious non-betting time after time, and it all taught me to not necessarily be so darn daring everytime, betting sometime close to the actual number of tricks I could get, but not quite. The day was over after this, we had installed The Sims 2 on Tim's computer and started playing that, and then it was time for night-night.

Fridaaay. I slept in this day, I like sleeping, sleeping is great. Ren had decided, and obviously this isn't all that rare over here, to start decorating the house fro Christmas since it was now already the day after Thanksgiving. The Christmas tree, ribbons, lights, the whole nine yeards were brought out and prepped the house for December 25th. After lunch (turkey sandwiches from the turkey and rolls, with cranberry slices on it) we decided to go out for a movie. Kim had just started working, at the new movie theatre in fact, so she could come, but Larry went right there after work and joined us. Ren, Bekkah and Michelle and Nathan decided they wanted to watch Yours, Mine and Ours, a movie in the Cheaper by the Dozen generation, actually more like a twin brother of that movie, so Larry and I ended up going to Just Friends instead. And what a hilariously great choice it was! This movie, I'm telling you, was worth every penny. Lots of good laughs, real funny physical humor here and there, a touch of crudeness well within any known limits of funny, and of course, actors like Ryan Reynolds (Two Guys and a Girl), Amy Smart (Road Trip, Rat Race), Anna Faris (Scary Movies 1-3), and Chris Klein (American Pie 1+2). Great stuff, you simply need to see this one. After the movie dinner followed, a tasty casserole from the leftover turkey and mashed potatoes. Dinner was followed by important previously recorded shows from the DVR, namely LOST and NCIS. Both great episodes, both totally worth the watch. Another well directed day in the Arizona desert.

Saturday. Waky-waky!! WAKY-WAKY!! Early. Tired. "What? Where are we gonna have breakfast? Denny's? I'm awake!!" Kim and Bekkah came with, but since Kim had to work and Bekkah had other business, they couldn't come with to Phoenix. But the rest of us, the lucky 5, cruised our way down there after breakfast, and spent the whole day in the 80 degrees shopping, shopping, and finally, eating at the Outback Steakhouse for Michelle's birthday (the next Tuesday). I had a big, juicy steak, very different from the food served in the Commons at Augie, and just another one of the many meals I'll dream about for weeks to come. We stayed at the Embassy Suites that night, and first we went out to the outdoor pool and went swimming and had fun, even had a soak in the warm hot tub. Then we bought a pay-per-view movie (The Island, not all that good, really) accompanied by brownies, ice cream and warm chocolate sauce. Grrrrmmmwaaaauu!

The sad departing on Sunday was a bit early, at 7:30, but the plane wouldn't wait. I said goodbye to Larry outside the terminal (he took me to the airport, the rest were sensible and stayed behind to go back to sleep), and got on my plane to Minneapolis. In Minneapolis (note here that the following can be told in many ways, I choose to not go down the bitter road, or to mention any emotions associated with the following events) I waited around in the airport for about 45 minutes, before eventually realizing that no one would actually show up. I hailed a cab to the downtown area, and went straight to the bus terminal. I was told the next bus to Sioux Falls, 245 miles away, would leave at 6:30 am the next day, so then I checked in to a hotel nearby and stayed there till the bus departure the next day. The bus was on time, and after sleeping most of the way, it was raining at first, then sunny, then Sioux Falls came up, I was met outside of the city by a brewing blizzard that cancelled all the other passengers plans of getting out of there that day. I was just going to Sioux Falls, and fortunate that way, but now I'd already missed two classes and a make-up test that day because of the late bus.

Markus picked me up at the bus depot, and he told me the good news. Due to the snow storm, school had been cancelled that day and an extra day of break eventually added. Relief. We made it back to the school okay, and safe. Trip concluded, and well worth the money. I'd do it all again in a heart beat.

posted by CK @ 02:10