Days 696-702! Happy Thanksgiving! This week is filled with family time, good food, and relaxation. It won’t be the most adventurous filled week, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I was itching for some family time and this trip definitely scratched that itch.

I stayed the night at my relative’s house. We had stayed up late playing Jackbox TV games and chatting, so we ended up waking up on the later side on Thursday, November 27th.

After a light breakfast, we kickstarted our Thanksgiving morning with a, very cold, walk around the neighborhood. This is the coldest I have been in pretty much 2 years… I enjoyed the walk and the company, but I am not fit for the cold weather anymore! We made our way back to the house and soon after my parents arrived.

The Green Bay Packers were playing the Lions today and we all sat down to watch it. While watching, someone brought up playing Mahjong. I had never played it before but I was game to learn. So we set up a game in the same room and I was able to continue watching the packers while also learning a new game.

Turns out, I am a big fan of American Mahjong! It’s similar to other rummy style games, definitely a bit more complicated, but I was hooked after the first game. I never won a match but I enjoyed the 4 or 5 games we played.

The Packers ended up beating the Lions, which, as a family full of Packers fans, we were all happy about.

My aunt was doing most of the preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner, but the cousins got to work on making a charcuterie board. And after we finished the rest of our relatives started to arrive.

We had a wonderful night full of delicious food, smiles, catching up, and, of course, game playing.

Friday, November 28th started with reading and then playing cards with my mother.

We continued on our battling at the card game, casino. Then we moved on to a new game that my cousin, Galya, gave to us. It was called Cat in the Box and it’s a trick style card game where the suits of your cards are constantly changing. Definitely a fun twist on the regular trick taking card games we usually play.

We went over to my other aunt and uncle’s house around 1pm for Thanksgiving round 2. My uncle Brad is one of the big reasons I’m writing a blog. He was an Anthony Bourdain fan and when he found out I was traveling he wanted to hear all about it! So that inspired me to keep up with the daily blogging.

The rest of our extended family arrived and we had yet another fantastic feast and great family time.

One of our family traditions, when we are all together, is to sing. My aunt used to be the sole guitar player of the family, but now that I’ve gotten into it, I’ve joined her in the song leading. After we wrapped up, we stayed longer and played more cards and other games.

Saturday, November 29th brought with it a huge snow storm! I was being treated to a full welcome by the Midwest winter. We started the morning with more reading and cards but then ventured out into the winter wonderland to spend time with my grandparents.

My Zeidie (my grandpa) needed help replacing his propane tank. So we went back out into the cold to get it refilled and when we returned I helped put it into his grill. The tasks weren’t done yet and I was put to work hammering in a couple new picture frames. I guess he was up to date on all the maintenance work I’ve been doing and wanted to see it in action.

Jokes aside, I was glad I could help!

My grandparents missed out on the song singing last night, so I brought it to them. I serenaded them with some of their favorites of our family’s singalongs and played a few of my originals too.

After the singing was through, we sat around the table chatting and playing cards. If you couldn’t tell, our family loves to play card games.

We carefully made our way back to the Airbnb. The snow was still coming down and it didn’t look to have any intentions on stopping. We bided our time reading at the Airbnb as we strategized what our evening plans were going to be. Eventually we decided to head back to my aunt and uncle’s house from the night before for pizza and more game playing.

We played a really fun dice game called Panda Royale. I had never played it before but I really enjoyed it. You collect dice throughout the game that all of different special effects. It was a nice twist to dice rolling games.

We got up early on Sunday, November 30th (crazy how quickly this month flew by) and headed out of the Airbnb. My parents were meeting my mother’s friend at a cafe, I was meeting my cousin Ben!

We didn’t get to hang out on Saturday because of the snow. I was very happy to get some more quality time with him. We chatted for two hours straight about pretty much everything. It was a nice way to cap off a great weekend with family.

We then set out on the road back to Illinois. I finished up the 5th ACATAR book on the drive and started up on the 5th Stormlight Archives book. I’m so happy I got a kindle, these books are ginormous and I don’t have to carry them around.

We stopped in Rockford for lunch and then carried on the rest of the way home. After carrying all of our things in, I sat down to play guitar. Not long after starting, my high e string snapped! Disappointing, but I was still able to play for a bit without it. I’ve had plenty of experience playing on hostel guitars that are missing strings.

Our neighbor had cleared a lot of our driveway from snow while we were away, but we still had a bit to shovel. So I helped my dad shovel the rest, which reminded me of one of the many reasons why I don’t miss the cold. I do love to do activities in the snow… but shoveling isn’t my favorite.

I played a bit more guitar while thawing out back inside. We then watched an old Barbara Streisand movie “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.” It was actually a very good movie, I was surprised. I didn’t know anything about it going in and I enjoyed it. It held up for a movie from the 70s.

I started off Monday, December 1st by going to the gym with my mother. She had another guest pass for the gym so I was able to sneak one more gym session in before heading back to Central America.

After a nice workout, we had a couple errands to run. The first was going to a local guitar shop so I could buy new guitar strings. The second errand was the grocery store.

The rest of the day was fairly lowkey. I played cards with my mother continuing our casino battle. I read for a bit and then got around to restringing my guitar. Tonight, there was an online short story discussion that my parents were participating in. So I read that so I could participate as well. After the discussion I played some more guitar, watched some tv with my parents, and then hit the hay.

Tuesday, December 2nd was another chill day. I started it off reading more of the 5th Stormlight Archives book. It’s a 1500 page book, so I’ll be chugging along reading it for a while if I had a guess. I played some more cards with my mother and played more guitar. My father, mother, and I then played a card/board game called “The Trumpet Game” which is a trick style card game but the strength of the suit of cards is changing throughout the game.

The relaxing day then turned into a fun night out in Peoria. We met up with some family friends for dinner before heading to the Civic Center to see a musical. Not just any musical… but the Book of Mormon! I have been trying to see this musical with my parents for the past 10 years. The dates just have never lined up… until today! This is one of those musicals that I’ve heard the soundtrack to over and over again, but have never seen. And it lived up to the wait.

If you don’t know this musical, you should look into it. Especially if you enjoy comedic musicals. I’m very very happy the dates finally worked out and I’m glad I finally got to see it with my parents! This was another good reason to be sticking out the cold weather for just a bit longer. When we got home, we played one more round of the Trumpet Game before calling it a night.

It’s Wednesday, December 3rd and we’ve come to another end of a week. As I’ve said, it’s pretty crazy how fast time flies. Today wasn’t much different from the past couple at home. I did however get lunch with my father and one of his former colleagues. We went to Bradley University’s newest dining hall. I gotta say, it was weird being back in a college dining hall. But the company was good and we caught up, chatted about music (amongst other topics), and had plenty of good laughs.

I also started up the Instagram page for Landlocked Beach Bum. So if you’re interested in following along, the handle is @landlockedbeachbum (or click the link). I’m fairly anti social media… however, it’s pretty vital to promoting smaller artists, and even bigger artists too to connect with their fans. But the main reason I decided to get it going today was because Spotify Wrapped came out.

For those of you who don’t know what this is, it’s Spotify’s way of showing listeners what they listened to this past year. The total minutes listened to music and podcasts, their top five most listened to songs and artists, favorite genres, etc. This is also a time for artists to see their stats too!

I didn’t do any promotion besides word of mouth, so I think it’s pretty cool that it’s been heard in 17 different countries! It also helps I have friends from all over the world now. But that 211 people have tuned in and listened to my music for over 2 days worth of listening is pretty cool. I was also in 4 peoples top 10 artists! Technically 3 since one of them was me… if I was in yours, let me know! I’d be curious whose list I snuck into.

My parents and I played more of the Trumpet Game, watched some TV, and that wrapped up this week.

The adventure might be a bit chilled out at the moment, but come Sunday of next week, I’ll be back in the thick of things. I’ll be heading to Nicaragua to spend the next three months traveling around and enjoying the warmth and surf. But until then, I’m going to soak up every minute I have with family and friends! I love traveling, but I really enjoy spending time at home. I’m lucky to have such a good one!

See you next week!

– Elie