My thoughts have turned homeward. There’s a point in every trip where your brain flips a switch from vacation mode to home mode. My brain has done that. I was longing to be back in Seattle. This visit has been about a place as much as about people. We have anchored ourselves in the South- the accents, the BBQ, the sweet tea, the camouflage, the red clay, the bare trees, the brick buildings. This was the place I was born.
But the place that is home calls. The church I love, my community, Sara’s school, work, my bike. The evergreens, water at every turn, mountains covered with snow, rain, sun, snow adventures, mountains, seafood. These are now calling me home.
I’m also thinking of all the things undone. Stories and talking, memories to recount. I’m too busy making new memories with my family.
Everyone slept late today. Grandparents did not take the early shift, so my girls resurrected old habits and came seeking food from us in our bed.
It was a morning of panettone. I love panettone and associate it with Xmas more than most foods.
We headed to Cartersville to the Booth Museum of Western art. What a lovely place. I love western art filled with horses and cowboys and vistas and action. I love Remington (?)’s action filled sculptures. I was surprised to see art like that collected in North Ga. The museum’s building is large and graceful. There was also an amazing exhibit of Ansel Adams art. Probably the best me, Wayne, and Dad have seen. The gift shop was like Top Ten Toys meets horses meets smithsonian gift shop- filled with clever, hard to find things relevant to the subject. The play area downstairs could have entertained the girls for a few hours if we’d known about it earlier.
We left sooner than we wanted to in order to visit another branch of Wayne’s family we hadn’t seen for several years. We celebrated Uncle Bobbie’s birthday to boot. We met at Longhorn Steakhouse. I had one of the best steaks I’ve had in awhile. Leave it to a Ga steakhouse. The girls were good, but got tired after the 3 hr meal.
Wayne and I agreed we had made the rounds and it’s time to head to the hills (read: Northwest).
Wayne headed to bed, still recovering from illness. I put the girls to bed. I pulled out some Xmas time classics my Mom pulls out every Xmas. We read Jack Kent’s 12 days of Xmas. Santa’s favorite story turned out to be a great retelling of the Bible story. I felt like we really got to celebrate the 5th day of Xmas.
