2013 Thanksgiving in Dallas, Texas
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for December 1, 2013
We flew down to Dallas, Texas to see my sisters for the Thanksgiving holiday.
We also saw their husbands, but only from the opposite side of the table. These guys can be pretty grumpy having to live with my sisters all the time.
The real reason for our trip, though, is so Luke and Avery can see their cousins. They really love these guys and don't get to see them often enough. Probably because it's so dang expensive to fly down to see them and driving takes too dang long. So when we do get the opportunity to get together, we do our best to make the most of it.
We also had a very special treat this time around getting to meet their newest cousin, Eli. This could possibly be one of the cutest babies on the planet. But it's also possible we're being a little biased. Not sure which it is.
My sisters were somewhat excited to see me, but Conner was truly elated.
To be honest with you, we don't even really go down to see my family. It's just starting to get really cold in Minnesota and they have a hot tub and warmer temperatures. Well, kind of warmer temperatures. It still got down to the thirties, but that's way better than Minnesota.
Tammy and David hosted us for Thanksgiving along with some of their friends. They were all nice people and the turkey was sublime.
Since Thanksgiving is now no longer supposed to be about family, but rather about shopping, we did our civic duty as American Citizens and lined up outside of Target for Gray Thursday.
Tammy is a grizzled old Black Friday veteran and knows exactly how to throw her elbows around to get to the bargains she wants. Sure there were some folks left bloodied and battered, but as Tammy always likes to say "Them's just the spoils of war."
On Friday, we headed to the Federal Reserve Building in downtown Dallas. We heard they gave free tours and were hoping they might even give out free samples of money, but no luck on that point. All we got were baggies full of shredded old bills, but no matter how much tape and glue I use to help me stick them back together again, it just doesn't seem possible. I kind of feel ripped off. I keep hearing that the federal government is printing money like it's going out of style, so I'm not sure why they couldn't just give us some new bills instead of the crappy old shredded ones. I'm going to write a letter to Obama and give him a piece of my mind.
We then went to Dealey Plaza which is famous for being the place where John F Kennedy was assassinated. Part of me was thinking it was kind of morbid going to see the place where a president was shot, but when we arrived I was amazed to see how many people were already there checking out the place. There seems to be a lot of morbid people out there, so I guess it's good that we fit in.
This is Robert Groden. He's written several books of conspiracy theories on the JFK assassination, appeared in the film JFK, and was the first person to show the Zapruder film on national TV on a show Geraldo Rivera hosted. He and his buddy were there selling DVD's and books and telling all sorts of stories about what really happened on that day back in 1963. I'm surprised the CIA allows him to stay. Or the Russians. Or Marilyn Monroe's relatives. Or any of the people who really did kill him for that matter.
But we don't need to go to Federal buildings or Historic landmarks to have fun. Oh no. We have fun anywhere we're together including Bass Pro Shops. And we don't even like fishing all that much.
Yep. It's really good to be with family. Even when they wrap up your Christmas presents in a box of Tampax and then make you open them up in front of their cute friends. Who better to do that kind of stuff to you then your family?