An Austin Thanksgiving

Just a warning, this may be the longest post I have ever written.

Enter at your own risk...

And bring a snack ...

Thanksgiving weekend is filled with lots of family traditions around here. A family reunion, a parade, a CD release and lots of food.

Wednesday The Boss Lady and I attended a funeral here in town for one of my Dad's first cousin's. He was a great guy and a good architect, too. More personally for out family, he was instrumental in getting The Boss Lady her current job. Which is a big deal to the entire family, since her school is one that he designed.

Thursday we spent the morning and early afternoon with Dad's extended family at our annual family reunion. Good food and big fun hanging out with some of my cousins who I have not seen since last Thanksgiving. 85 people, including about 20 kids managed to eat lunch and play outside without anyone starting a fight or getting drunk. Way to go, guys!

After lunch and playtime, a smaller herd headed over to our house to hang out and to eat The Boss' homemade chicken stew. The good news for me is that only 10 people were over here and The Boss Lady cooked for lots more. So I get to eat leftover stew for days and days! Yummy.

The Talker and The Princess enjoyed having Sis' kids over to play for a few hours. And they all got along without anyone starting a fight or getting drunk. Way to go, guys! After a couple of hours of play here at the house, I took the kiddos for a ride in the truck. Sis and The Boss Lady rode along, so that they could all go in one trip and ride in the bed of the truck. Big fun, all the way to the far end of the street.

Once we got down there, we found a neighborhood Thanksgiving party that was about to finish up. There were several families hanging out and five more kids who wanted truck rides. Everybody load up! We made several trips up and down the street. Lots of smiles and hollering all the way!


Today we set up the first of our outside Christmas decorations, an 8 foot tall Polar bear balloon and a Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Snowman balloon. In an hour, the front yard was decorated. Pictures will be coming later, after I decide how much more we will dress up the outside of the house.

This evening we headed downtown, to mark a place for the big parade. Marge is sleeping on the street downtown tonight, protecting our primo seats. The Boss Lady's plan involved me driving the truck downtown, to find a good parking spot on the parade route. The wife and kids followed me downtown in the Saturn. I am not ready to cruise the highways in the truck, so we stuck to surface streets, so the usual 15 minute trip downtown took more than an hour, but we managed to get there without any problems. It took a while to find the perfect spot, but we finally settled on a spot in the middle of the parade route.

Last year we had some incredibly rude families shove their way to right in front of the kids at the last minute, even though we arrived several hours before the parade started. This year, we will be sitting in the upper deck, aka Marge's truck bed. Hopefully the kids will actually be able to see the parade this way.

On the way home, we ate at an Austin institution, The Texas Chili Parlor. Neither The Boss Lady nor I had ever been, even though we can sing all the words to the song that made the place famous, Guy Clark's Dublin Blues. And let me tell you something, after one Mad Dog Margarita, I didn't care where I was, much less where you were...

After dinner we headed over to Waterloo Records, to pick up a copy of KGSR broadcasts vol.14. We have every volume of this set that has come out since we moved to Austin. They are some of our family's favorite discs. No way we would miss this release ANY year.

An REI just opened across the street from the record store. We ventured over there just to check out the new store. Neither of us were terribly impressed with the store. Seems to be a lot smaller and have a lot less gear than older REI stores. The REI close to our house is mainly stocking clothes now, so we were not terribly surprised. Still, I managed to score a screaming deal on a new tent. I have wanted an REI half dome for more than a dozen years, back when they were too expensive and costs $100 with the footprint included. The footprint cost an extra $17.50, now, but I think I have waited long enough.

Now, we are home again. Marge is loose in downtown. Hope she stays off of 6th Street. And I should be rocking out to my new CDs or playing with my tent. Instead, I am going to bed.