Steve's Birthday Weekend

Last weekend Chris and I celebrated his father's 65th birthday (and a number of other family member's birthdays) in Texas. We flew in Friday night and stayed through Sunday evening.

Friday night we ate dinner and drank wine with the family. Chris's sister and brother have young kids and I really enjoyed hanging out with the kids. They weren't too comfortable with me on Friday night, but the end of the weekend I was getting surprise hugs! It was really great being around the family and especially the kids. After dinner and some wine, Chris and I met up with Travis, Jimmy, Nate, and Matt at the bar. Eventually the bar closed and we crashed into bed at my parents' house. (Who were out of town but were gracious enough to let us stay at their house when they weren't even there. And in return, we cleaned the pool and watered plants for them.)

Saturday after I nursed a wicked hangover, which I blame Travis for, we went to David and Arianne's house to help hang the shelf Chris made for them. It was great fun catching up with them, seeing what they've done to the house, and hearing about their last vacation. It was especially exciting to hear that David has a large one-person show coming up next year.

While Chris and David hung the shelf, I visited Grandma Lucci in her nursing home. She was very surprised to see me and I think quite pleased. We had a lovely conversation for about an hour. Grandma just turned 96 years old on September 1st. It's clear that her memory is failing more and more as the years pass. She was in decent spirits but definitely is struggling with her memory. This time she spoke about her "first husband" as if she had had a second. She also told me that she didn't remember her birthday party which had occurred the previous week.

Saturday night was spent at the dinner for Chris's father. It was a lovely, lovely evening. Dinner was incredible. But the best part of the night was meeting friends of Chris's parents. Everyone I met was absolutely wonderful. Being around all these special friends of Chris's parents made me feel like having some wedding-related event would be great just so I could get to know more of their friends.

Sunday we attended Chris's parents' church and saw Audrey's baptism. After church the whole family spent time together until Chris and I went to the airport.