THANKSGIVING 2003

I'm baaaack!

Actually, I've been back a week now, but its been too hectic at work to do anything but veg when I get home. I tried to do some coding and I kept getting errors on a 40-line file. I forgot a " and a }) and my poor brain was so tired it took me 45 minutes to find and fix the errors. Consolation: the file loads, and when I went to bed, I had some sense of accomplishment.

So, I went to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving. I had a wonderful time. The only real ongoing negative part of the visit was the fact that both of my sisters smoke, and they smoke indoors. For non-smokers (and ex-smokers) this is more than an aesthetic turn-off. Yes, my clothes and hair stank of smoke, and my skin was irritated by the film it acquired, but even more than that, my eyes, sinuses and lungs just don't handle the cigarette smoke well. I ended up with frequent headaches as well, which put a damper on things, and poor Stephanie suffered more than I did, being an ex-smoker, and only recently having been on prednisone for inhaling those fumes at work. I really appreciated her suffering in silence. She was often uncomfortable and she was a real trooper about it. My sisters tried to be considerate, and they did modify their smoking habits when we were around (which is quite a lot to ask considering we were their guests), which made it possible to spend a couple of hours visiting at a time without feeling too ill or discomfited.

The best part was visiting with my niece and nephew. They're both amazing children and I look forward to seeing them and hearing about them as they grow. My sister is either an excellent mother or an extraordinarily lucky one. I haven't decided which :)

I am grateful that I was to see them and have an entire day with them, just the four of us. The Friday after Thanksgiving we took them for the day so my sister could get some sleep after taking on a third shift at the hospital. First thing in the morning we went to the Yankee Candle Company in Deerfield (www.yankeecandle.com). They have this complex that is almost like an amusement park or a mini-mall. There is a Christmas Village, a Yankee Candle Home store, and numerous themed rooms such as medieval castles, with themed products. Its was pretty cool, and I've never been to a place that smelled better. Hannah is only 14 months and she's also very quiet---not fussy at all. We took her and Sean, to the Springfield museums (www.quadrangle.org) after the candle factory visit. She was very appreciative of the sculptures--she kept making these cute little 'wow' noises and reaching out to touch the bases. All of us enjoyed the Ancient Egypt exhibit, which featured rooms painted like Egyptian tombs in bright colours. The Milton Bradley Company has sponsored an art discovery center there for children, with costumes and activities like scavenger hunts and colouring and stamping activities. From there we went to the Holyoke Mall at Ingelside. It is the largest mall I've ever been in. It doesn't have the aesthetic appeal that the one near us does, but its not meant to be a refuge from the rain, its meant to sell, and that it does. The whole time we were there we had nary a peep from Hannah. She was quiet and observant of everything. We didn't even know she was hungry or thirsty until we stopped for lunch finally at 2pm. She just at her chicken as quickly as we could give it to her.