Saturday, December 28, 2024
Today is the first day I've really had the chance to sit down and provide an update. We got home at 3:00 on Christmas Day. Our trip started nine days earlier on the 16th. I will spare you a lot of the gory details, but we left on Monday. We stayed in the hotel in Kennesaw GA the first night. They did not have a roll in shower, but that is a tale for a different day. The next day we got up and drove another 400 or so miles to Jeffersonville IN. We got up the next day and drove into Chicago. We actually made good time and we were there by about 2:00 in the afternoon. We checked into the hotel and took a nap. We then drove back down towards the airport. We met Mickey, Pat and Colton an Italian place called Joe's on Higgins. We had a good time. The food was good. The conversation was good. We sat there for a couple of hours before going our separate ways. We headed back to the hotel.
Thursday, we got up a little later. Our first stop was to meet Randy and Diane at Starbucks right near the hotel. This was a nice visit. It was about 90 minutes maybe. It's been a few years since we've seen them. They have not changed much. I don't think we talked about anything specific. It was just good to be together. After Starbucks, we went back to the hotel and took a nap. We were to meet Mike and Trish at their house at 5:30. We went up to their house because it was nasty cold. We talked about going out for dinner but, I wimped out. We had takeout from a place called Wok ‘n Fire. The food was good. And decided to play dominos. I think it's the first time I played it. It was actually kind of fun. The rules were easy. I could see where I would have to improve my strategy, but for the first time we did well. As much as we hated to, we had to leave, and we were back at the hotel by about 11:00 I guess it was.
Friday, we got up and drove north. We stopped at Woodman's in Kenosha. We picked up a sausage tray, vegetable tray, potato chips, etcetera. We were going to pick up Monster, but it was too cold. It would have frozen in the car. We couldn't have Mary lugging it back and forth to the hotel. That would have been divorce. From Woodman's we drove another hour to Pewaukee. Thankfully, the room was ready. Mary moved all our stuff from the car into the room. About an hour later, my parents showed up. We got them set up in their room. We went down there and initially just talked. We went to the restaurant attached to the hotel. It is called Thunder Bay. I don't remember what I ate right now, but I remember it being pretty good. Everyone was satisfied with their dinner.
Saturday was party day. My father was up before the sun. We met him downstairs for breakfast at 9:30. He had already eaten, but we sat there for a while. After breakfast, we went up and started to set up the party room. In a nutshell, mom and dad's room had a conference room attached to it. A strange layout but it worked for us. It was a long table that easily sat with thirteen of us. Everyone had a spot at the table. Over the next couple of hours everyone showed up. Mom, Dad, Colleen, Jenne, Tom, Alaina, cousin Sue, Mel, Sean, Heather and Alaina’s boyfriend Chris. Mary gave each of the girls one of the bags she created. They all loved them. There were other gifts passed out. This went on for about an hour or more. All along, people were snacking on the things we bought from Woodman's. For main meal we had a choice of Domino’s, or a Chinese place called King's Wok. I had Tom Yum soup and fried rice. Both were pretty good. Everyone had their choice. Mary had some salad and bread from Domino's. My mom had a cheese pizza which she ate one piece. The others helped her. It worked out well. The party was a success. The only one that didn't show up was Shannon, and that's understandable. There were countless pictures taken. Those that were leaving said their goodbyes. I'm glad it worked out.
Everyone was gone by about 5:00. It was decided that mom, dad, sue, Colleen, Mary and I would chill in our respective rooms for an hour before going swimming. Mary, mom and I did not swim. Colleen, dad and Sue did swim for about 90 minutes or so. It was then decided we were going to go for a drink. This ended up being several drinks. We were there for a good 2 1/2 hours if not more. I had three glasses of wine. We did not get drunk, but we had enough on board to shield us from the cold between the two buildings. We just sat and talked. I don't remember any particular topics. It was good just to be together.
We met for breakfast on Sunday. Everyone was in a big ass hurry to get out of there. I'm not sure why, but that was the case. I wanted to spend more time showing my father the new iPad come up with that didn't happen. It would have been nice to sit for another half hour. Anyway, that did not happen either. We have an hour and a half ride to the hotel in Hoffman Estates. We made it in good time.
The Kelly Christmas party Started at 3:00. We got there shortly thereafter. There were people still setting up, so we were among the early people. For the next 4 hours we did the Kelly party. It's pretty routine. I don't say this in a bad way, but it is very structured. I sit in my spot. I drank my beer. And people come up to me and we chat about nothing for 3 or 4 minutes and they move on. Mary does her social butterfly thing. Again, I'm not criticizing, she talks with all of her cousins and aunts and friends and everybody else. The food comes at about 5:00 I guess. They did not eat much this time. Mary read the Christmas stories to the kids. We did well in the raffle. We won a $100 Amazon gift certificate. We also won a set of wine glasses. Santa comes and gives gifts to the children. After that, it's pretty much over. I think we were back at the hotel by 8:00.
Monday, we got out of town. We leave the hotel at about 9:00. We drove south through Illinois into Kentucky. We stayed at a place right outside of Paducah. The next day we got up and drove to the making bypass. It was a long day. Wednesday, Christmas Day, we drove the last 300 miles. We were home by about 3:00. It was a very successful trip. We met family and friends. We attended 5 or 6 movements. We drove 2700 miles or about 300 miles a day. It was a good trip. We still can't get past the cold though.