The Art of Being The Fifth Wheel

My dad is doing a lot better. Thank you for all the prayers and positive, healing thoughts. I am humbled. He is scheduled to be here on Monday. I welcome the opportunity to be able to spend Christmas with him. I honestly don't remember the last time we all spent Christmas together as a family. Should be interesting to say the least. Stay tuned for the next episode of "Dysfunctional Family Gone Wild Over Christmas Ham" :)

So prior to the excitement of the past weekend, I actually had a really fun Thanksgiving. It's been a while since I did the whole song and dance of splitting celebration. Goes with the territory when you're in a relationship. "Okay honey, who gets lunch and who gets dinner this year?" bit. I haven't had to worry about that for close to 3 years now and I have to say that it's been a nice break to not have to run around like a headless chicken...err...turkey :) This year though the monotony was broken. I had lunch with family and then dinner at my boss' house. Any time spent with the fam is guaranteed good times. Staying true to being the perpetual family ham, watch this and laugh with me...

Dinner at my boss' house was super fun as well. I ate like it was going out of style and drank a good amount of wine. After dinner, we played Mafia. This is hands down THE COOLEST GAME EVER!!! So being raised in a military like environment, a paid assassin for a father (an exaggeration of course, but you get my point) and a trained shot, I totally rocked the game. Every single time I called out the Mafia, I was dead on (no pun intended). It's easy though. People can be so transparent especially when they are inebriated. Ahmad, my boss, did the best God voice.

The 25 pounder birdie

And of course sticking to our shopping tradition and when I say tradition, it means that this is only the 2nd year we have done this. My mom, her manfriend ( I would say boyfriend but he's too mature to be called that), my sister, her partner and I made our way to Vegas for our annual after Thanksgiving shopping madness! Yes, I am the perpetual 3rd, 13th, or in this case the 5th wheel. I don't mind it at all though. I have mastered the art. Being the 5th wheel is no easy task. There's more people to keep track off and in making sure that I spend an equal amount of time with each person. I have to be sensitive to their alone time or intuitive enough to know when it's time for me to butt-in to their conversation that is fast becoming an argument. There is a fine balance to it. And if you're buying into all of this, then I must say that, I have also mastered the art of bullshitting :)

We left home around 12:30 in the morning. Armed with my iPod, Po, and a blanket I slept most of the way through, aside from the occasional bathroom breaks. Got to town at around 8:30ish in the morning and went straight to the outlets and shopped our patooties off. Needless to say, by the time we checked into the hotel later on that evening I pretty much passed out.

Geek in the Pink

View from our room

Her name is Eli...so cute!




Don't sweat the small stuff...love the small stuff :)

jakey