No wonky: T-day and a wonderful home weekend

Just got home from Turkey day in Chicago with the Peterson extended family. I realized I didn't take any photos except 15 tries at the snow-coated tree in the backyard. As is tradition, it seems to snow on the way to Thanksgiving, or the way home. This year it was on the way to. I also realized I rarely see snow falling much, so this dusting seemed like a novelty. Hmm.

Lots of good food, Mom's birthday (which falls, every so often, on T-day), lots of talk of the state of the farms, the state of the Bears (which is usually bad?), the state of the Cyclones (also usually bad?), the occasional random geologic question for Katie ("they built a hospital in eastern Iowa that runs off geothermal power. What do you know about this?") and the usual life questions for Katie ("when are you going to get a boyfriend?" When are you going to get a real job?") to which I usually laugh and say that the answer is the same for both: unclear.

The weekend before T-day I finally spent at home and enjoyed a sunny Saturday sleeping in, and spending time with friends. Sarah and Rachel and I went up to the park to slackline, which Sarah and I have done extremely inconsistently for the last couple of years. We saw a couple of kids at the park who stop by every time we're there and are fascinated. They made us realize how long we've been going though, because the first time Cate tried it out, her little brother was too small to try, since he could only just walk. Now, they both charge down the line.

Shortly after, Cate abandoned the line to climb the tree.

This little guy has a big old smile on his face!

Then it was off to celebrate Dai and Sora's half birthday and Wendy's whole birthday by having a "the 90's are the new 80's" party. This was an interesting idea; most of us can free associate for this category, since we were in high school in the 90's. So, there was a lot of flannel, Green Day, Naughty By Nature and imitation Doc Marten's. The obvious trouble is that we aren't really far enough from the styles, in fact most people's costumes were old clothes dug out of the closet, supplemented by the thrift store, which led to scenarios like this:

Patrick: Hey! That's a nice flannel.
Katie: Thanks, I got it at the thrift store this afternoon.
Patrick: Really?
Katie: Yeah, you should see if it fits...