Thanksgiving

Since I moved away from home, I'm not sure if I've had a "typical" Thanksgiving day. Growing up we often had the whole Rose family down for dinner. Even if Mom did get a little stressed out, I enjoyed cooking and seeing my extended family. The last several years have included a few Thanksgiving's by myself, a few with friends, and a few with my extended family at my grandfather's retirement home.

This year was the first time Miguel and I have been together for a family-oriented family. He was headed to spend a few days with his family in Eastern WA but felt a little guilty about leaving me for Thanksgiving and Christmas (I have to work the days around both holidays) and had basketball practice Friday and Saturday. This would have made for a very quick trip.

We could have decided to spend the day alone together. A few people from the clinic offered for us to spend some time with them. So, in the morning we accompanied about 15 other people on a 7+ mile hike up to Lake Angeles. We had been on the hike a little ways but not all of the way to the lake. The lake is about 2100 feet elevation gain from the trail head. I didn't bring my camera but imagine a lake partially frozen over ringed by snow-topped cliffs. It was fairly warm while hiking but was frigid up at the lake and was even snowing a bit. It was beautiful. My gluteus muscles have been complaining the last few days though. In the evening we went over to another's house for dinner. Quite a good dinner but it felt a bit chaotic and was mainly with people we don't know.

I'm grateful for the invitiations and some time spent getting to know some people in the community, but it was a bit of a hard day. It'll be good when Miguel and I have our own holiday traditions, or I have the time off to go with him to his family or to mine.