Thanksgiving with Claire

Thanksgiving this year was the best I've had in a while. It is our tradition to go to the mountains and get our Christmas tree up there the day after Thanksgiving. So the holi-day I woke up early to go to Goodyear with Brian for the Thanksgiving reverse triathlon. It was very cold out and actually did feel like winter, like it's supposed to! :0) He drove me to the race which was nice because I got a little more time to wake up. I originally was going to do the triathlon, but I was under the impression that reg. was closed, so I did not come prepared :( Oh well, i took lots of photos instead. While I was waiting for my super ride to show up, I replaced my car tires with bike tires and took a spin.
1.5 minutes before the start of the race, I hear someone shouting "Claire Moty!" from the start line area so I start running towards the athletes. It was Brian and he had forgotten to put on his chip! so here we were digging through his bags and his clothes to find the little piece of plastic that would keep track of him better than he could that day. I had to laugh as he ran back to his spot in the start line, ready to go. Brian got third overall which is great right after an ironman. We left to go back to the Tempe Artc Center where I left my car and we both went home to celebrate Thanksgiving with our own families.

The rest of the day for me was full of cooking and smelling good foods. The turkey we made on the grill and it was the best turkey i've had. After dinner, my family and I went out to the hot tub for a while until the lightning got too close for comfort and we came back inside. It was bedtime thereafter.

On Friday, my mom, sister and I headed out to one store to get semi-good bargains and we found some christmas gifts. After, we drove home and got ready to go to the mountains for our tree. I went in the car with Bridget and Dave and Dave's dog. Bridget is my older sister who is 20 years old and getting married in a few years. It was a quiet drive and kind of scary around the turns with the wet roads. We had to make several U-turns before we found where we actually wanted to be. :-? I felt bad for dad for losing his way. Once we stepped out of the car, the chill filled my lungs and the light not only reflected off of the clouds but also off of the snow. This was the first time I saw snow this year so of course, I made a snowball :)
As we walked through the trees and up and down canyons, I realized my passion for the woods. It is where I belong. So we cut our tree down and two others for my sister and for my brother's girlfriend. Our family tree though was about 10 feet taller than the other two. It almost touches our roof as I look at it now. I stood on the top rung of the ladder and put my hand above my head and still cannot reach the top of it! This will be hard to decorate.
On the way home, I went in my dad's car with Stuart and Jen. It was a quiet ride until we played a memory game with the alphabet. everyone would say an item or word that starts with the next letter and the next person would have to remember each word for the letters. Anticlimactic, bubbles, catastrophy...etc. It is a suprisingly funny game. At the conclusion of our game, we had some trouble on the road...duh duh duh duh.....

I heard a snap and the wind got louder. I looked up to see the tree flying up from the roof of our car! So we pulled over to the side of the road, our other car pulled over behind us and we "fixed" it for now. Taking off again, once we reached 70 mph, it happened again and I began to think we wouldn't get this tree home! Jen and I had to pee so we opened our car doors and used the space like outhouses...what an interesting experience! peeing for boys must be so easy. anyway, finally for the second time, the tree was "fastened" down. So we took off again. I kept looking out of the sun roof as we took a tight curve and saw the tree slide to the left and off the left side of the car. Had to laugh as it hung by a few feet of tree to the top of the car. For some reason I thought I was in national Lampoon's Holiday Vacation...hmmm. Got that fixed, and rode at 50 mph all the way home.

Once we got home, turkey dinner was served again and Brian came over to share the time with us all. My brother made a comment that I thought was comical but may have not been entirely true, not yet. Bridget noticed that all the boys were left handed! this is so cool! Left handed boys must be a Moty-thing then. We headed up to play guitar hero after dinner and only allowed each other (aside from Jen) to play on expert only. The best anyone could do was about 1 minute into a song before failing! Stuart, Jen, Brian and I watched WallE. WallE was a good movie the first time I saw it, but this time around, with the company, it was one hundred times better and more meaningful. Pixar did a great job with it.

To sum it up, this Thanksgiving was the most comforting and fulfilling holiday I've had in a while, and I'm especially glad to have been able to spend it with such wonderful people. Thanks to all.
goodnight!
xox Claire Bear