Loucks family Christmas, American Thanksgiving

Last weekend, Jeff's brother and sister and their respective partners came to visit us to celebrate an early Christmas. For various reasons Jeff's family will be unable to convene in December so we did an early holiday celebration, consisting of food, games, karaoke (at home on a pay-per-view type channel through our cable company), going to see the new James Bond movie, a gift exchange, and having a fun and relaxing weekend. Here is a photo of us at a restaurant, just as everyone was about to head to the airport:

Caroline, Jeff, Allison, Bridget, Ray, Shuo

This coming weekend, we are hosting a potluck to celebrate American Thanksgiving, as we did to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving when we lived in the US. We invited our psychology department colleagues, and expect that we'll have 16 guests and lots of good food. Our house is quite small, so we won't have room for everyone to sit, but I don't think they'll mind too much.

It struck me over the weekend at several points that I felt "normal." At least a few times I caught myself having a good time, not thinking about my physical limitations. I didn't realize just how much of a focus this has been for me until suddenly it wasn't a focus. I think that in one way or another, every waking moment since surgery I have been thinking about my physical health, either overtly or in the back of my mind. Until this weekend. There were moments this weekend when that wasn't the case, and it felt good. I can only assume that there is more of this to come.

On a related note, Jeff and I will be in Eugene Dec. 21-30. Send me an e-mail if you will be in town and want to get together! And happy Thanksgiving!