Thanksgiving in Madison

Jo took the entire week off to enjoy getting a little more time for rest and relaxation over holiday week.  We got up and going on Monday heading out to a local mall to do our shopping before the mad rush after Thanksgiving.  This trip was focused on completing our shopping for everyone on our Christmas lists (except, of course, each other - I expect Jo to be buying me things throughout the entire month of December).  It was also a great excuse to enjoy a hamburger from Five Guys since they just happen to be located at the mall we picked (pure coincidence...).  We were very successful in getting a little something for all on our list and now just have to buckle down to wrap everything up and get it in the mail.

Tuesday after our morning exercise routine, Jo headed to the kitchen to make cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies to take with us to Madison.  Jo loves to bake and doesn't get enough time for it between her work schedule and our reduced need for sugar calories (well to be honest our desire for those calories has stayed unchanged, just our waistlines ability to hide them is more limited).  She turned out her best looking and tasting cinnamon rolls ever (of course that could just be the sugar talking).  Later that afternoon we packed up and headed to Madison for our annual Thanksgiving visit.  After catching up with Kathy a bit we went to Lombardino's for dinner.  We had eaten here as graduate students although it is supposedly under new management since then.  Still a great Italian meal in a nice setting.

Wednesday started my days of doing nothing but reading and playing computer games.  They did manage to get me out of the house to see the new movie on Lincoln.  It does an excellent job of capturing what it might have been like back in the 1860's, but it is a pretty slowly paced movie.  Also, I personally thought that the dialog sounded like they were reading letters he wrote back then as it didn't sound like how people would normally converse with each other (but maybe that is how they spoke, what do I know).  A good movie for those interested in historical drama, not so much for those interested in an action movie.

To make some room for our turkey dinner, we hiked through one of the parks around Madison on Thursday.  With all those calories burned, we then enjoyed the typical Thanksgiving dinner excellently prepared, as usual, by Kathy with a little help from Jo.  We were joined by John, Drew, Chris and Angela (over from Milwaukee) and no one left the table hungry.  After dinner, we all played "Let it Ride" a board game that Chris and Angela brought with them, instead of collapsing on the couch for a good snooze.  No one was too interested in tackling the Black Friday sales so we all sat around playing on our respective electronic devices (IPad, Nexus, laptops) which probably is a great commentary on today's times.  Friday's entertainment was learning and playing Sheepshead.  It is apparently a popular game in Wisconsin and must have been created by someone (or someones) who had been enjoying Wisconsin's other popular game - drinking vats of beer.  It has an arcane set of rules and scoring that you should check out on Wikipedia if interested - as I couldn't do them justice here.  We came home on Saturday and spent the rest of the weekend puttering around the house.