Holiday Wrapup

OK, so let's see. On Thursday, we ate a lot of food with Erin's parents out at the Kopper Kettle. On Friday, we drove to Bedford and saw a bunch of people I'm related to, as well as their offspring. Grant played with some trains and some cousins, and I got to catch up on the latest game of "Pin the Tail on the Hillbilly" courtesy of the Police Log in the Bedford Times-Mail. On Friday night we drove from Bedford to Louisville, with a brief stop at 10pm at a Taco Bell in Salem, Indiana in an effort to make Grant stop screaming, "I want a quesadilla!" No kidding. What 23 month old child says "quesadilla?" It's ridiculous. It's even more ridiculous that we actually stopped. As I tossed his second dinner to him in the back seat, I half expected, "Where's the hot sauce, pops?" to come out of his mouth.

On Saturday morning, we awakened to a lovely day in Louisville and a 10 hour break before my cousin Nicole's wedding. While Erin and Grant slept, I checked work email and staked out a breakfast haunt called Toast on Market. It got rave reviews online, and it was close to our hotel. We headed that direction at 9am, and when we arrived, we knew we'd hit a gem. I ordered a pretty standard omelette that was wonderfully prepared, while Erin ordered an item on the menu called "The King." The King was french toast stuffed with peanut butter, bananas, and mascarpone cheese. Sound too rich and heavy to be edible? I agree. But it tasted unbelieveable. It really might be the best piece of breakfast food either of us has ever eaten. Erin let me have a few bites of it, and if Grant hadn't been getting antsy to head back into the outside world, I might have been inclined to order a second breakfast. It was amazing.

After Toast, we headed back out to an antique store we'd passed up the street on the way to breakfast. Joe Ley Antiques turned out to be an adventure in itself. They had five or six floors of antiques, and nearly all of it held some sort of interest for Erin and I. It was fascinating. Everything from old furniture to architectural salvage stuff like doors and window frames to old signs to old instruments to gently used caskets. It was a hoot. We turned one corner and found ourselves in front of a case full of old toy trains. Grant literally put his hands on his knees and yelled, "OH...MY...GOSH!" After briefly trying to encourage him in the use of the word "goodness," we let him bask in the glow of the antique toy trains. He pocketed a toy caboose for home and made nary a peep for the rest of the morning.

Already noting that the morning had turned out to be an unexpected joy, we made a brief stop in Jeffersonville at the Schimpff's Confectionary. Grant was, again, spellbound by the all of the different kinds of candy and the art of making candycanes. In the end, he declared that he wanted Chicken McNuggets for lunch, so we made the obligatory stop at McDonald's.

On Saturday evening, my cousin Nicole got married in Louisville, and I got to catch up with lots of the Hunter side of the family that I don't see very often. Nicole looked happy and lovely and glad to be married. Me? I was just happy to have gotten to spend a great couple of days with Grant and Erin, and I spent a little time reflecting on how blessed we are as a family while I watched Grant show everyone his dance moves at the wedding reception.

We relaxed on Sunday and headed back into the work week on Monday. December is a BUSY month for all of us. Erin has the end of her school semester to deal with, and I spend the month preparing for the 2009 model year and CES. Life is a whirlwind, as always.

My next blog entry will be titled "That Thing Growing on my Face" or "Why You Shouldn't Do Surgery On Yourself With An Exacto Knife." Hurry back now, ya hear?.