Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was wonderful...I don't think I've eaten so much in such a short amount of time ever before! His grandmothers (they literally live next door to each other, so we split our time between their houses) made dishes especially for me, including a spinach souffle and cauliflower with cheese. All the food was delicious, and I got the recipe for a dessert called "Banana Split Dessert" which was just fabulous. Kevin and I made Rolo cookies (chocolate cookies with Rolo candy pieces baked into them) which were a hit with the family. I also wrote his grandmother a poem which she read to the entire group during Thanksgiving dinner. She started to tear up a bit while everyone laughed. Kevin said that I would be a success if I could make her cry. I think that's an odd way to impress, but apparently it worked :).

I finished my last class on Wednesday around 1:30 and Kev actually beat me to my apartment where he met me around 1:40. I quickly packed up my things and we headed out around 2. By 4:30 we were in Hope, Illinois (Hope is a really tiny town, of maybe 20 people where his grandparents, both sets, live. It's about 30 minutes from Urbana-Champaign, where the University of Illinois's flagship campus is, which itself is about 3 hours south/southwest from Chicago). We briefly met with Grandma James (maternal grandmother at whose house we stayed) then headed next door to Grandma Saullers for dinner. It was entirely vegetarian except for some ham. We chatted with them for a while then went back to James' to bake the cookies. The first of Kev's relatives came in around 1:15 a.m. from Indianapolis. We played gin rummy with his cousin Eric until about 3:30 in the morning. Perhaps not the best idea, since I was woken up by the chatter of more relatives around 7 before finally getting out of bed around 9:15 (after Kev attacked me). More people stopped by and visited and eventually Thanksgiving lunch was ready and served around 12. What a feast! After lunch Kev, his cousins, and I went out to play some croquet. It was fun, and thanks to Kev I managed to finish in second place. We came in to warm up and played some gin rummy. Later, we went out again to play basketball (my fingers were frozen!), then came in for some hot chocolate. Kevin, Eric, and I played the Game of Life which I won by a narrow margin. After that we grabbed some leftovers for dinner. We then headed next door to hang out with Grandma Saullers for a while and played some dice games that Kevin taught us. We tried to get to bed early, but instead stayed up rather late planning our shopping spree with maps and lists and everything. Eric's family had to leave early Friday morning and no one else was ready to go shopping, so it was only Kev and I.

We woke up early to go shopping in Champaign. The plan was to wake up around 3:15 and head out by 3:45, but we accidentally slept in a bit. I suddenly woke up at 4:30, checked my clock, and dashed out of my room to wake Kevin up. We left just after 5 after hurriedly getting dressed and waiting for the car to warm up. The temperature hovered around freezing (getting as low at 18), with wind chill, the entire time we were there. The crowds weren't as bad as we thought they might be, with Circuit City and Target having the longest lines outside. We made off with some great bargains everywhere we went. We both bought thermal underwear which will be very handy in the next couple of weeks. I also got a 50-pack of DVD-Rs for about $15, which is about a 75% discount.

We got back in around 10:30, exhausted but happy. I ate a quick breakfast of metal muffins and yogurt before taking a lovely 3 hour nap. Kev bought a king-size down comforter that he promptly wrapped in a duvet cover (my suggestion, he didn't know he should get one for it) and then took a nap under it. His landlord doesn't understand how to properly heat his building so Kev's room is often 59 degrees when he wakes up in the morning. Can you imagine?! After our naps, we ate some lunch (leftover Thanksgiving food), and then put up a Christmas tree. At 6 we went next door to his other grandma's for dinner and had grilled cheese with tomato soup. We said goodbye to them, then came back over to pack up our stuff and head out. We left around 7:15 and made it back to my place in really good time, just around 9:45. Kev helped me bring all my stuff up and then left for Evanston.

Now I have to get back to work. I've got lots of papers to read and a problem set to work on. All in all it was a wonderful Thanksgiving break, thanks to Kevin and his wonderful (yet admittedly slightly crazy) family!