My Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful! Bill and I left (very very very very) early Wednesday morning and flew from Seattle to Chicago (thank you to Amy for staying up all night and driving us to the airport! Much love!). When we landed at O’Hare, I could see just a dusting of snow on the ground outside and was excited by just how “winter” everything looked. As we walked off the plane  I could actually see my breath. It was very different from the last time I flew out of O’Hare last August!
We drove from Chicago to Fort Wayne, which I liked because it gave me the opportunity to see a lot of northern Indiana. I liked how spread-out everything is there – very different from the traffic jams of Seattle – and really enjoyed seeing old brick and limestone buildings. There are a lot of little lakes that I’m sure are a lot of fun to visit during warm weather.
We spent Thanksgiving with Bill’s family. They are incredibly nice and were very welcoming to me. I felt more like part of the family than a person they were meeting for the first time. Dinner was beyond delicious (Bill’s mom is a fantastic cook!) and I really enjoyed spending time getting to know everyone. After dinner Bill and his brothers took me to my very first hockey game, and I loved it so much that we ended up going to a second game on Saturday night.
On Friday Bill took me for a drive, showing me the places where he grew up and where he used to work when he lived in Fort Wayne. He also took me to see Amish people! He’s told me about the Amish community just outside of Fort Wayne before, but I actually got to see a family riding down the street in a horse-drawn buggy, and a man using a team of huge horses to plow a field.
I didn’t want to concern myself with dieting during our trip, so it was pretty much anything-goes with regard to food. I gained three pounds over the weekend, but have already lost it all by going back to the gym and my much-missed Zumba class. I’m trying to eat healthy, but I’m not dieting anymore, and if I can keep dropping weight this way then I’ll be really happy. And I know I’ll lose weight more slowly, but I also know it’ll be easier to keep it off by doing it gradually. And it feels SO good to be back to my workouts!
We’re now officially into the Christmas season now. I’ve done the bulk of my gift-buying, we’re putting up the tree and decorating the house on Saturday, and I’m looking forward to some holiday parties coming up over the next few weeks. It’s going to be a fun month!