Home is truly where the heart is...

I am caught up with my work, work and have already given up reading about "contracts" for one of my classes, so I figured it would be an ideal time to update my blog! Now this is a good use of my precious time these days ;-) I'm not a slacker student, but I figured once I started reading sentences two to three times that it's time to take a break...and reflect upon my wonderful time in Roswell, GA over Thanksgiving. 

Well to begin with, the drive down was in adventure, as I was expecting it to be. Let me just say that I have now been forbidden to make any hotel reservations without my husband's thorough review. I planned for us to crash in Charlotte, and then finish the rest of our 10 hour drive the next day to Atlanta. My logic was thus: Why spend a lot of money for a quick snooze? Well, we got what we paid for to say the least. The toilet was pretty much detached from the wall, the bedding was handed-down from a 1982 Holiday Inn, AND there was no clock in the room. What hotel these days cannot afford a $5.99 clock from Walmart??--- apparently, the Ramada Inn on Equipment Drive, Charlotte, NC. From this breif description I may sound upidity, but I don't deal well with unhygienic sleeping quarters, and this is just the inside-- heck, my dog wouldn't even sleep on the comforter! When we arrived, couples were concluding their one-night-stand rendezvous, and when we left we found evidence of someone's wild night on an injected substance. Worse yet, when we complained to management about this lovely recreational tool, they calmly said, "oh, yes, let me get the gloves..." ---wait a second, is this a regular occurence?!!? All I can say is I'm glad we got that experience out of the way before children because I already felt badly enough when I saw the disgust on my pup's face! On the bright side though, it is an experience we can look back upon and laugh, maybe.

Finally, Roswell, GA, my childhood stomping grounds! It had been SEVERAL months since I'd been there, but I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by a sense of nostalgia. However, this may have been my most nostalgic visit yet being that it was my first Thanksgiving with my husband... in my childhood home. It was that simple and obvious realization that spurred my nostalgic tidal wave, and made the meaning of the holiday season even more prominent. While being at my house added a special touch, I realized that my home, no matter where it physically may be, is with those I love, and that in and of itself made my Thanksgiving truly special. Okay, okay, I'll divert myself from this sappy sidewalk.

What really made this Thanksgiving particularly fun was witnessing my parents' new deer watching/feeding fetish (it's a horrible reaction to the empty-nest syndrome), catching my hubby and brother-in-law secretly sip Jagermeister from travel size bottles like they were still in high school (so random), and listening to an impromptu, live John Mayer performance while eating Thanksgiving dinner. I'm pretty sure John Mayer's performance made my brother-in-law's night, and probably his whole visit. You can view it yourself compliments of Will, and the amazing recording capability his Droid.file:///Users/lorisundberg/Desktop/video-2009-11-26-21-41-04.3gp  I mean, I never really know what to expect when I go home! I should actually say, I never know what to expect when being with my family and how our love inspires us to be true to ourselves--whether we want engage in new hobbies...listen to live music at the dinner table...or even revert back to our adolescent years by being terribly conspicuous about our alcohol consumption (even though we're now way over the legal age)!

When you think about it, a home isn't a place to shelter us from the rain, but a place that lies within us and is shared with and shaped by the people we love. I feel blessed to be able to call many places my "home."