Hello, Goodbye

Goodbyes are not forever.
Goodbyes are not the end.
They simply mean I'll miss you
Until we meet again!
~Author Unknown

Thanksgiving weekend went by in a flash. The boys were all home for the holiday. It was wonderful to see them and to wake up in the morning knowing Jacob was sleeping in his room across the hall. It did however, go by far too fast.

We had the pleasure of two Thanksgiving dinners this year. The first with Jonathan's family, was a lovely meal with a large gathering of his family's friends. The food was excellent, the conversation lively and we felt lucky to have made some new friends.

Yesterday we had our family dinner at Cath and Stan's. It was a small family gathering enhanced with the presence of Rick, Marg and Bob. No one makes a better turkey dinner than Cath. I'll be stopping over for leftovers later in the day. We had an early dinner so Merv and I could drive Jacob back to school and still give him some time to do some work before his heavy Tuesday schedule. I noticed a lot of families doing the drop off at school yesterday, like us they had their cars packed with things the kids have decided they need to make dorm life a little more comfortable. Our load included four cases of pop, two cases of beer, a rolling chest of drawers, a small vacuum, wall art, a dart board and groceries for the mini-fridge. Add to that, Jacob's clean laundry and it took two trips from the car to unload everything in his room. While I was waiting for Merv and Jacob to bring in the second load, one of Jacob's new friends dropped in to see him. When we left, the boys were about to settle in to an evening of figuring out an engineering assignment.

Today I'm going to start preparing for our trip to Rome on Friday. This will be the first real vacation (not attached to business for either of us) Merv and I have had without Jacob in eighteen years. It feels a little strange. I take some comfort though in knowing I can text and e-mail Jacob from Rome as easily as I can do it from Toronto and he'll probably respond to me(or not)just the same as he does when I'm at home.