December 27

Today began in delightfully lazy fashion, as I got up at 9 and enjoyed my cup of coffee while I completed a puzzle we began earlier this week on the dining room table. A little later, I got the chance to catch up over lunch at Quincy's in Damascus with my old friend Donna, who I went to school with back in the fourth and fifth grades (and hadn't seen in person in 30ish years).

After a few hours of quiet(ish) time back at grandma's, we were off again, this time to drop the kids off with their cousins so the adults could go out. Adam drove us --me, Bobby, Reaya, and Charlie-- to the (is the indefinite article required here?) Idiom Brewery in Frederick, where we joined my cousin Jerry and his wife Steph for conversation, beer (yes, I had a little, which reminded me that I'm really a wine and mixed drink girl and not a beer girl), and Jenga. Although Bobby inadvertently dumped a beer in his lap, Jerry emerged victorious in our Jenga tournament, tying me for the title with three knockdowns. (That's how it works, right? You're supposed to knock them over.) From there, we visited a food truck for some BBQ, and found a table at another brewery so we could eat (and so some members of the party could have more beer).

I'll save the precise content, but the drive home was one of the funniest trips I've had in a long, long time. I laughed so hard at times that I could hardly breathe. So for that breath-baiting laughter and the time with friends and family I don't see often, I'm thankful.