Happy Thanksgiving

So we made it to Thanksgiving in San Diego with my fam and I must admit it was somewhat surreal to wake up in a Motel 6 Thanksgiving morning. The advantage to doing this of course was that we didn't have to drive a long ways this morning and we didn't have to deal with traffic although I dealt with it plenty enough last night. Still there was a great deal of familiarity to being here, particularly with Johnnie who LOVES coming to Motel 6 and doing the whole breakfast at McDonald's thing. Same McDonald's near the freeway and near the outlet. At least I know he had a huge breakfast. Not that there won't be any food later on at Grace's house but I simply don't know what Johnnie will feel like or not feel like eating. This way I'm sure. And then we went back to the hotel room and I kept up my journal and Johnnie got an hour's worth of Garfield videos in. We took off for Lisa's by 10 AM and we're there by 10:30. Lunch was not until 1:30 but I thought we'd at least get to spend time with the fam whoever was there.  My mom and Mike were already there. I think it's the first time I had seen Mike in more than 2 years. I was thinking this morning that among the many possible things that gave me a physical reaction while driving last night <let's see... I had named the Lisa interaction earlier in the day, some residual stuff from work, and maybe perhaps the whole act of going down to San Diego for Thanksgiving by itself?> dealing with my family could be a possible reason too. Not that I haven't dealt with them before, but in this new drive towards becoming more aware of the negative emotions I keep trapped in my physical body, the family dynamic always has a place and a history. I don't actually remember the last time I've come right on Thanksgiving Day with JOHNNIE.  Usually we are at the Elams, or before that we were always in Maui. Or a couple of times I've come by myself. So this was a rarity indeed. And of course I'm going to milk it for whatever it's worth. I let Johnnie spend whatever time he could with his Grandma Linda. Had him draw her some art work. Had him play with the dogs (see pic). In the meantime, there was definitely loads of food. I had rib roast for the first time in months. But I also threw caution to the wind. That meant I ate more carbs than I have had in a long time. Hey, it's Thanksgiving. I even had a carrot cake! ANd yes, predictably I was ready to take a nap after the meal. I was carb comatose LOL. I stuck around for a little bit although the dynamic was that the bigger kids hung out and I stayed with Johnnie even while watching his TV shows <Floor is Lava> and while the old folks caught up too. I am THANKFUL that I got to join my family on this day and with Johnnie with me and that my family got to enjoy him if just for a couple of hours. I was thankful for the Thanksgiving feast. And so when we left for home by 3:30, mainly because I also wanted Johnnie and his mom to connect today, I thought it was still worth the long one-day drive just to be here. There were no weird physical anomalies on the drive back. And there was no traffic either. Which meant we were home before 5:30. It was already dinner time and I know Johnnie didn't really eat much other than bread and rice for lunch, so I made him his chicken special. And we did connect with Lisa, arranging a hand-off for tomorrow. I don't know that Lisa is negative for COVID, but I'm sure Johnnie's immune system is strong enough to withstand whatever Lisa has. And then Johnnie must have had an extra heaping serving of chocolate ice cream because he sure had a lot of bounce tonight. That's ok. I love the bounce and his innate joy. Even though his punches are starting to hurt. We went to bed early tonight. And I note that I still made it to 11,000+ steps and already at more than 400 active minutes this week. Happy Thanksgiving EVERYONE.