This year marked our annual trek across Missouri for Thanksgiving, but the first time we’d done so with a nearly 9-month-old. We’ve done this every year since being married, but until now, we’ve only had a dog to deal with. This time, we had a baby…plus the carseat and luggage that goes with her. Needless to say, I’m glad we have a different car now, as all the stuff filled up the back to the point where we couldn’t see out of it any longer.
Regardless, we went to Hannibal for the Thanksgiving holiday where the majority of the Poor/Baumann clan typically goes. Meg did great, for the most part, but didn’t sleep terribly well the second night. As usual, the food was great, the company was fun, and the “Poor Women” entertained me with their video game shenanigans (this year, some fun with “Just Dance 2“…and yes, we have video evidence…). On Friday, we continued our Tour of Missouri by driving to my parent’s house in Columbia where we hung out with the immediate family. Again, Meg did pretty well the first night…and not so well the second night… But overall, again, good food had by all, and a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit on Saturday night.
Either way, it was a pretty good trip. We made it back to Iowa by mid-afternoon, so it allowed us to clean up a bit around here and prep for the upcoming week. Christmas is going to get difficult, I imagine, as we were already pressed for space in the car on this trip. We’ll need to pick up some kind of roof rack bag in order to make space for everything. That, or Edie will have to spend Christmas with Sam… 😛
On a side-note, we didn’t do much Black Friday shopping. I did pick up a few games online, and Brooke and I grabbed a new All-In-One printer from Wal-mart for $44. Great deal. And it works wonders. Wirelessly. It’s glorious. 🙂
And, on another side-note, I was looking to see if the Dave Matthews Band performance from the 2010 Grammy Awards was posted anywhere and, low and behold, it’s up on Youtube. I tried finding it the day after the awards and the only place I could find it was iTunes for $3. Outrageous! Therefore, I post it now. It’s, perhaps, the best live performance of them I have seen and, by far, the best performance of any group at the Grammy’s that night. They should have won.
Start with a pound or so of ground meat. Traditionally, maid rites are beef, but we had this pork from the Columbia Farmers’ Market in the freezer.
Chop a medium white or yellow onion into smallish chunks.
Add the meat and onions to a skillet on medium heat and season generously with seasoned salt and pepper.
Continue to stir the meat/onion mixture until it is brown and the onions are a little bit brown.
Serve on hamburger buns (the cheaper the better if you ask me….nothing fancy needed for these sandwiches). We had homemade french fries and California blend vegetables, but I like to order onion rings and a rootbeer with them at Mark Twain Dinette!!
This hill was to the side of Ma and Papa’s house in Louisiana, Missouri. Well, actually, I’m quite sure it’s still there, but it doesn’t seem as big as it did to us back in 1990 when the picture above was taken, but anyway…. We spent hours on this hill riding (while sitting) skateboards down and avoiding cars. There was also a hill next to Papa’s service station that served the same purpose, but had a nice grassy area at the bottom to stop us. One of my favorite memories of Papa is of him riding down the hill next to the station on his wheely thing for working under cars, then falling off and Ma getting out the Bandaids to patch his skinned knees.
