End all, be all

It's really awesome to visit my family, and I'm glad they don't live super far away. It's about three hours and some change to Houston From Dallas via auto. During the holidays, though, you're lucky if you make it in five hours. Not kidding.

Here's a map of the trip we made (no stops!):



If it looks like we damn near crossed the entire state, it's because WE DID. Try doing that, again, with NO STOPS and with a neurotic chihuahua mix whining and panting THE ENTIRE TIME. No fun.

So, of course, we were ridiculously glad to get to my sister's house. The moment we got there we started drinking. I don't think we stopped until Sunday night because Dave and I had to pack it up and head out early Monday morning to dodge the veritable bullet of traffic shittiness. In between horrific car journeys was the best Thanksgiving I've had in, like, forever and such.

My baby neice, Little T, has gotten like, so big. She's only 3 and a half months old and she's mostly head right now. Even though she has just as many teeth as the crack whores on Industrial Boulevard, she smiles like she doesn't give a damn. My sister said that she was sorry that Little T wasn't up to her usual self since she had a cold. I was like, "Are you giving this baby drugs? Because if she's only half as happy as she usually is, you guys need to switch to the good shit!"

Never in my life had I seen such a good little baby. She was usually so quiet, and when she wasn't she was screaming with joy, trying to get her point across through gurgles and smiles. We filled in the blanks for her most often, having our own one-sided dialogue with her, which she seemed to absolutely relish.

So, a lot of my weekend was spent playing with my sweet neice, but it was also good to hang out with my mom and dad. My mom has almost made a full recovery. She's still a little sore from the surgery and being in the hospital, but she's definitely glad to be out of there. We always have Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house, and this one was definitely one to remember.

My mom and big sister Jess had set the table with the Bavarian china, good silver and a beautiful crochet table cloth that my great grandmother made ages ago. It was so decadent, even without the delicious food. The spread is always admirable, and my mother pulled no punches this weekend. A huge turkey and an enormous ham with sides as far as the eye could see. Tons of pies and cakes. And beer. And wine. And scotch. Oy.

As the evening goes on, games are played and watched on TV, we go on walks and we sit around outside shooting the shit. It's just relaxed and fun being around my family. No pretenses, no airs. You could practically walk around with your pants unbuttoned and no one would care.

So, we had a fantastic time. The whole weekend is a bit of a blur, but on Friday night I made a shrimp curry and a sweet potato curry for my sister and brother-in-law. I went on a run around their neighborhood, did some yoga and got my hair cut by my sister K.

The haircut was one of the highlights, for sure. She's amazing with scissors. And amazing with the shampoo bowl. She blew my hair out and flat ironed it before she even touched it with the scissors. We talked about what I wanted my hair to do (little-to-no-maintenance curls) and then she started dividing it into sections and cutting with a razor. Even though it was straight as a board when she was done, it was really cute. But the awesome part was when I washed my hair Monday evening. I use Aveda's be curly shampoo and conditioner, and I bought some be curly styling balm to use on my hair when damp before bed. I woke up Tuesday morning with the most awesome hair! All I did was straighten my bangs a little! My coworkers were all amazed that I didn't spend an hour curling my hair that morning!

So I'll spell it out for you guys: A great haircut + effective styling products = AWESOME HAIR!!!

Back to work, folks!

(sorry about the dearth of pictures! I played around with my sisters' camera and she said she will send me the photos I took.)