Thanksgiving Weekend

Vivian and I were able to attend our first professional football game at Rosenblatt Stadium last Friday, which was a certainly interesting experience for the two of us. We'd been to Rosenblatt several times, but we'd hadn't seen the field dressed up for football before. It was very surreal experience. The weather and the crowds were also noticeably different — the family-friendly atmosphere had given way for beer-swilling drunks screaming at the field and fighting with each other in the stands. I could almost understand — it was below freezing and the line for hot cocoa stretched all the way around the stadium. It was still fun to watch some professional football huddled together near the end zone, but the visiting Tuskers plowed the field with the Nighthawks, and Vivian and I headed home early rather than watch the carnage play out.

Fall is quickly making way for winter, with colorful leaves turning dry and brown as the dreaded white stuff starts sputtering down from the sky. That meant Vivian and I had to break out the rakes and clean up our lawn for the very first time. We've come full circle in our little house — we bought it nearly a year ago and we've got to experience all four seasons with it now.

We kicked off Thanksgiving weekend at Jenny's house on the following Wednesday, enjoying some drinks and treats while playing What's Yours Like with her new boyfriend, Kris. Ever since I made martinis at Vivian's birthday party back in September, I've been a bit of a fan of mixing drinks. I made Manhattans for myself and Eric, appletinis Jenny, Venche, and Jon, and virgin appletinis for Vivian and Kris. I could have made another virgin appletini for Eric, but he seemed to like grabbing for Vivian's.

We got to celebrate Turkey Day for the first time at our home in Bellevue, and we had Jack and Donna over to share in a feast that included turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, pearled onions, cranberry sauce, and everything else you'd need to induce a day-long Thanksgiving Coma.

Vivian and I took a trip down to the Old Market that evening to enjoy the recently-lit Gene Leahy Mall and walk off a bit of our meal. As such, we discovered the Hollywood Candy store has a new, much larger location at 12 and Jackson. Among the aisles and aisle of candy were a new soda fountain and a small movie theater in the works. The owner bumped into us and mentioned that he plans to show free B-grade movies there once the theater is finished. I'm thinking sugar rush + bad movies = MST3K.

Despite being entirely too full, we still stopped by Ted & Wally's for some egg nog ice cream before our walk down to the Gene Leahy Mall. We got our annual photo taken down there before heading home for the evening.

On Black Friday, Vivian and I skipped the homicidal three in the morning crowds and enjoyed a very tame and not-too-crowded stroll through Walmart, where we picked up Batman Begins and Bladerunner for $2 each along with our egg nog. We visited the Durham that evening for their Christmas tree lighting and helped Donna's cake-decorating group hand out cookies for the kids to decorate before the main event.

Later on, we dropped by JNO to welcome back Jillian from New Yawk City. She was able to have a Birthday/Welcome Back jam toward the end of the night. Jenny and Kris made an appearance as well, and we inducted him into the tradition of having breakfast and BS'ing down at Village Inn afterward.