Thanksgiving

As alluded to in my last entry, I spent Thanksgiving weekend in warm and sunny Houston. It was certainly nice to take a break from the cool and wet weather we've been having in Seattle for the last 4 weeks or so, and even nicer to spend some time with my brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews (one of whom, Colin, I met for the first time).

After flying overnight on Wednesday (3.5 hours is too short a flight for a red eye, especially when followed up by a one-hour layover and one-hour flight), I needed a nap when I arrived in Manvel. Thankfully, dinner wasn't until 4:00, so after spending some time playing with Graham in the backyard, I hit the hay. Dinner was to be at Eric and Pam's friends' John and Sarah, who also have a young child (Hannah, who is 2.5). With so many little ones running around, this was unlike any Thanksgiving in recent memory. The food was *excellent*, as always, with some side entertainment provided by Graham, who managed to get the orange-colored cupcake he was eating absolutely everywhere. Our hosts were very sympathetic, though, and even though we never really got to sit down together for very long stretches, nobody seemed to mind.

Friday morning, Pam, Graham, Colin, and I went to the Houston Zoo. One of the nice things about this zoo is that they have free admission days throughout the year, and Friday was one of them. Lots of people joined us there, and we got to see some cool animals (including an okapi, and a bear that was actually awake and moving!). Afterward, we stopped by to have lunch with Eric at the hospital, before returning back to Manvel for the afternoon. I spent some time trying to install their new DVD-RW drive, and learn how to transfer video from their new camera to a DVD. That evening, we back to the hospital to see Eric again, and Graham had a wonderful time exploring the "aquarium" and fountain inside the hospital lobby. He definitely has a thing for water!

Saturday, we met up for lunch with one of Eric's med school friends who was in town, and then headed to the beach in Galveston. Prior to this point, I hadn't seen Graham smiling a whole lot -- he seemed a little uncertain what to make of me, and kept giving me funny looks. However, once he got to go into the water, everything changed. He had such a great time laughing and playing in the shallow waves and sand. Apparently, this was quite opposite to the way he behaved on his first trip to the beach, but he wasn't walking then. Saturday evening, Eric and I went out to a very fancy and tasty Brazilian steakhouse named Fogo de Chao. It had been a while since I'd been to one, and it was excellent. I'm sure I put on a few pounds this weekend! Here is a link to my photos from the weekend.

After failing in my attempt to give up my seat on my return trip to Seattle on Sunday morning, I arrived back in town to an unfamiliar sight. A forecast for snow. Sure enough, by about 3pm, the flakes started to fall, and continued to do so during the evening hours. I'm sure other parts of town got more, but lower Ballard received about one very wet inch of snow. Makes me want to break out my skis and snowshoes for the first time this season!