November Joys and Thanksgiving

November was a great month!

First of all, I have to say that the peds department here at UCD is incredibly humane. I've been on peds urgent care and, despite working a full week, weekend, and last week until Wednesday in a combination of FP clinic/peds urgent care/newborn nursery and taking like q3 mommy call, I still feel like I have a life. And I got thanksgiving off (I was on the intern version of this rotation last year this time and it was my best month all year!).

Tom, Joe, Dr. R, and I got together last weekend to hit some tennis balls at the courts at Sac State. Fun, albeit embarrasing. I have lost my backhand and any skill whatsoever in tossing the ball to serve. I hope we play more so that I can get some game back :) Betza took lots of pics, but I am finding it impossible to paste the code into this blogger and so pics will have to wait until I become more tech-savvy.

I had an awesome birthday! It's tough to graduate into the "late" part of this decade, but I have forgotten about that... for now. There have to be some perks I'm just not thinking of... Thank you all so much for all the lovely cards and well wishes! That Friday, we had a potluck/bbq at Shomir's with tons of awesome food. The pecan pie(s) Shomir baked from scratch for me were a highlight, and got him the honor to rebake for Kyla's Thanksgiving get-together... which, unfortunately, I couldn't attend b/c I flew to MN! (Sorry, also no pics from the birthday... I had left my memory card at home despite having my camera... this caused a lot of confusion. Not that Kyla would have let me post any pics [well, involving her at least] anyway ;)).

So... Thanksgiving. It was wonderful, as always. I left Sac on Thursday a.m. and, despite a 1/2 hour connection in Mpls which had me briskly walking from one Northwest gate to the next and being the last one on the plane, there were NO delays and I was in Grand Forks by 4 p.m (actually, a few minutes early, which is just unheard of!). And con equipaje!!! (no bags to check... therefore, no lost bags! Yippee!!). My dad graciously picked me up and we headed to rejoin everyone else at Duane and Marilyn's Lake House. Thanksgiving there is becoming quite a tradition!

We had wonderful food, which included a juicy turkey, stuffing (my FAVORITE), lefse (a close second), sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, spiced crab apples, 3 types of pies... and more. It was amazing. I am still full!




But even better was the company and fellowship! It was Duane/Marilyn, as well as Richard (my Dad's 1st cousin) Amy (his wife), Derek, Jacky (their kids, my cousins), Dyno (Marilyn's sister), Heather (her daughter), along with Grandma, my parents (flew from Virginia), and me. We missed my sister dearly-- she was battling the rainy weather in CPH, although also planning her Christmas trip to Kiev and more...

me with Mom and Heather


Grandma (with Cocoa in the foreground)


Rich and Amy


Derek and Marilyn enjoying some dessert


We were all also obsessed with this new (6 wks old!) kitten (unnamed), the only progeny of their cat (Laura, my cat expert, is it strange to only have one kitten and not a litter??) I don't even like cats and I wanted to take her home...

on Jacky's chest



Heather gets close


Soooooooo little!!!!



I want to adopt her! :)

Cocoa also getting close...

Well, we managed to roll ourselves home Thursday night.

Friday, on Grandma's request, we had to do a wee bit of shopping at Columbia Mall in Grand Forks, whose chaos on "Black Friday" is still NOTHING compared to the madness of Tyson's in VA or Arden here in Sac on a regular old day. No one got trampled, thank goodness. I got a couple of nice sweaters (thanks, Grandma!) and reflected on the Minnesota winters that I'd survived... (actually, it wasn't too cold up there-- in the 30s or so).

Some sights from up north:

The old farmstead outside of Fisher, where my Dad grew up and where we spent every summer as kids...

Piles of sugarbeets!

Frost-covered trees

We relaxed Friday evening, reading, watching Scrubs episodes, and heartwarming holiday movies like The Family Man (I agree w/ Wendi-- you have to see this if you haven't already!).

Saturday, we headed out to lunch, again in Grand Forks, with Duane, Marilyn, and Bill and Carol, my sister's godparents and good friends of the family.

I love this picture... Bill got this limo and wanted to pick us up in it! I think what's even funnier is the dress... him in the Santa Hat and short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt, next to my Dad, who is dressed to take on a trek in the tundra!

The group at the Golden Corral (Grandma, Carol, Marilyn, me, mom, Bill, Duane)

We had a quiet Saturday night before I had to return today. My flight leaving GFK was at 4:45 a.m.!! Can you believe this? I didn't know that flights were allowed to leave this early! Since the airport is about 45 minutes away, my dad and I were up at 2:50 to get there. Ugh. He is a saint for driving me. Needless to say, I slept that whole plane flight, the whole 3-hour layover in Mpls (minus some minutes of book browsing-- one of my favorite airport activities!), and almost-4-hour flight back to Sac. I do feel rested, though! It's so great flying back to the west coast... despite what felt like a long travel day, I landed just after 11 a.m.

Shomir's car unfortunately broke down on his way to pick me up (and we're not sure she's going to make it... :() and so I ventured home on the $1.50 Yolobus, but it was all good! While there are many things I miss about MN (which almost feels as much home to me as anywhere else) that include: wonderful family, childhood memories, friends, lefse, lakes, cheap gas, jello salad, bars, and clean air, I sure do love coming home to (in almost-December!!!) 65-degree, sunny weather! It was awesome to be able to leisurely walk home from the downtown bus stop in the sunshine!

After a run, unpacking, some errands, grocery shopping, and dinner, I am now content to snuggle down with another book before work starts again tomorrow. I hope December is just as good as this past month has been!