When I was a kid, I never had to go to school on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

See, in rural Pennsylvania,  this counts as a “holiday” of sorts. Being the opening day of deer season (and my region not being the most urban of areas), this meant that a good number of people were literally headed out to the hills to bag themselves their first – or only – buck of the season. Schools and many places of work didn’t reopen from the Thanksgiving break until Tuesday. It wasn’t until I arrived at college in decidedly urban Washington DC that I realized for nearly everyone else in the US, it was back to work as usual on post-Thanksgiving Monday.

Just doesn’t seem right, does it? 🙂

So I’m returning to my roots with a bit of a blog break for today. My family and I will actually be coming home to Kumamoto this evening from our Thanksgiving trip to Kyoto. That will give me a day or two to sort through the piles of laundry, chase out the dust bunnies that always seem to take up residence when we leave, successfully copy over the 1000+ photos I shot (autumn leaves are pretty, y’all :P) and get together a few notes on my latest discoveries.

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Hard to believe that the New Year is right around the corner!!