it's not life that matters but the journey...

I think it's about time for winter icons - since it snowed on Thursday, and the little lake in our apartment community is now frozen!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a very nice Thanksgiving (those of you here in the states, that is), and that your weekend was relaxing! I thoroughly enjoyed having Thursday off from work, and I didn't even miss my class that night. I was bummed, however, that the first Thursday I actually could be home, there was no new "Supernatural" - apparently it's on hiatus until mid-December *sigh*. As for the actual holiday, the only thing I really wished for this year was to be with family. Otherwise, it was really just another day. This is the third Thanksgiving in a row that I haven't been with my parents - not being with family makes all holidays really pointless, especially Thanksgiving. Last year we didn't do anything at all - I think we just stayed in our apartment and watched tv - I was knitting a blanket for my nephew, but otherwise things weren't too exciting a year ago. The year before that, we were in Japan - for fun, I thought I'd link you to my Thanksgiving post from 2005 - it's interesting for me to re-read this, and you might enjoy the persective from someone spending the holidays abroad:

thoughts on Thanksgiving while in Japan - 2005

But actually this year we did something different for Thanksgiving - we went out to dinner in Chinatown and ate the most fabulous Chinese food. We were invited by Masahiko's friend Minoru and his wife Mie; they wanted to take us out because I helped Mie write a letter of recommendation for her job. Minoru is another blues guitarist who Masahiko met several years ago when we first moved to Chicago. Recently, Minoru gave up being a full time musician to work full time in an office, mostly so he could spend more time with his wife and their new baby boy, Kaito who was born just about a year ago. We drove to their house in the city late afternoon Thursday and spent about an hour or so playing with Kaito and drinking coffee. I didn't get any pics of the four of us, but I did get some of the baby (which is much more interesting, I'm sure):

( Here's some pics of adorable Kaito )

then we drove to Chinatown and to a huge restaurant that was packed full of Chinese people - in fact, I was one of only two non-Asians in the whole restaurant! We got the most amazing food, including the best shrimp I've ever had, plus complimentary lobster:

( our thanksgiving feast )

Friday we both went to work for a short time - I was done by 1:30 and Masahiko was done by 3 p.m. We decided to get takeout that night for dinner - pasta from Spaghetti Warehouse down the street, and stuffed ourselves again. Saturday was a day of errands and spending money - I had to spend $400 to have the axle shaft fixed on my Nissan! so much for saving... and for Christmas presents!! Today we drove out to Michigan to the surf shop so Masahiko could get his new winter wetsuit (yes he is going to surf Lake Michigan in the wintertime!!) - we had some lunch there at a little cafe and got home by 4 p.m. Now I'm relaxing and trying not to think of a full week of work and school ahead of me.

hope I was able to catch up on everyone else's posts - I've been trying:)

have a great week!!