So, I drove north from Oklahoma City, to Bartlesville (which is just south of the Kansas border). I got to see some of the amazing renovations my creative and handy parents are making to their house so they can sell it in the spring (it made me want to immediately go home and dig into the upstairs bathroom - knowing I'd have their support and guidance and power tools, of course). I played a lot of Yahtzee, and put Bailey's in my coffee whenever I could. I went on a ride in my dad's project car (an electric blue 1968 Mustang Cobra GT350), and had drinks with my mom at the top of the Price Tower (one of only two towers Frank Lloyd Wright ever designed, which he beautifully dubbed "the tree that escaped the crowded forest"). I went Christmas tree shopping and did a whole lot of crossword puzzles.
After a long weekend of all that, I flew my brother to Connecticut, and then came back to North Carolina, tired, happy, glad to be home – and excited for Christmas.