The identical and but totally different may very well be the theme for Thanksgiving 2024, however I can say with a full and sincere coronary heart that it was a very good one. Per standard, the women and I headed all the way down to Georgia early, on Tuesday morning. Being within the new home, we shave a strong 1 hour+ off our outdated drive and fewer than three hours later we have been pulling into mother’s drive.
Thanksgiving 2024
We wall walked Finley, unloaded, then went to see The Finest Christmas Pageant Ever, which was actually healthful and candy. Did I tear up? In fact I did. Afterwards we walked throughout the road and demolished some tableside guac and fajitas earlier than calling it an evening.
Wednesday morning we have been off to Nannie’s home. Whereas all of us felt the plain gap in our hearts by not being welcomed by Nannie’s “nicely hey there” greeting, her dwelling nonetheless full of the acquainted heat and love as our household trickled in, bringing with them large hugs, rowdy children, and finally the scrumptious aromas of pies.
Wednesday prep day is a staple custom and we loved doing in order standard. We adopted it up with an enormous bowl of selfmade beef and vegetable soup my aunt introduced over, a reminiscence crammed stroll by the outdated barn the place we performed cops and robbers as children, and a hike all the way down to the creek the place our children discovered a deer cranium and thought it was the best.
Crafts and Film Time
Late afternoon, after we completed organising the desk and taste-testing one of many pumpkin pies, we headed again to mother’s home for snacks, drinks, and crafts. For 2 years in a row Hailey has picked out a bunch craft and it’s been successful. This yr she picked out these cute sock snowmen. So cute!
We ate chili, performed Christmas music, laughed exhausting, and ended the night with a exhibiting of Residence Alone for the children in a single room and Planes, Trains, and Cars for the adults in one other.
Thanksgiving Morning
On Thanksgiving morning mother’s home felt like the start scene of Residence Alone and all of us scurried round to prepare and head over to Nannie’s.
My aunt and uncle had gotten the turkey going early that morning so it already smelled scrumptious as all of us trickled in. Our complete crew was current by late morning and it was the best time to pay tribute to Nannie. We visited the cemetery and advised her how a lot we liked her as we unfold just a few of her ashes beneath the beloved pecan tree that she would stroll to every day to collect pecans, all the time gifting us with luggage of shelled pecans at each go to. It was predicted to be a wet day, however it turned out to be essentially the most lovely of days- cool, clear, and crisp. A blessing.
The rest of the day was joyful, full of full of life dialog, rambunctious children, and naturally, the perfect meals of the yr. I’ve heard it argued that Thanksgiving meals is overrated and I promise you nobody with that opinion has been to my household’s Thanksgiving desk as a result of I stay up for this unfold all yr lengthy!
It’s exhausting to beat a rustic Thanksgiving!
After consuming mid-afternoon the children and the blokes took off to the sphere to play soccer whereas the remainder of us cleaned up the kitchen, watched soccer, and every picked out objects of Nannie’s that meant quite a bit to us. It felt bizarre her stuff by that lens however I’ll say that the bedside chair, the outdated cookbook, and the marble sport my Pawpaw made a long time in the past certain heat my coronary heart once I see it in my room, bake a pie from its pages, and watch my children attempt to get their marbles again dwelling as they play the sport with one another.
That night all of us went our separate methods and we made the 2 hour experience again to our new dwelling to unload and get a superb evening’s sleep. The subsequent day we have been off for spherical two!
We’re lucky that David’s mother and father are solely about 45 minutes away from our new dwelling so we made the fast and straightforward drive and arrived similtaneously David’s brother and my nieces and nephew (just one nephew as the opposite is now a university man and wasn’t capable of make it. He was missed!)
It was one other lovely day and we took benefit of it with a stroll within the brisk air earlier than coming again inside to take pleasure in Grandpa’s chili, just a little little bit of Texas Maintain ‘Em (betting with sweet corn to make it enjoyable), good dialog, and naturally, the Georgia/Georgia Tech rivalry sport. Somewhat soccer speak for people who have a good time, however WHAT A GAME. Tech appeared dominate for almost all and being surrounded by Tech followers isn’t the simplest watching situation, so I watched it separated from the group, with Hailey who I believe took pity on me- ha. Properly, 8 (EIGHT) overtimes later, Georgia pulled it out to win 44-42!! It was nicely definitely worth the tremendous late bedtime to silently cheer and have a good time the win with Hailey.
Saturday Morning
All soccer sins have been forgiven and we had everybody over to indicate them the brand new home. David and I’ve been dreaming of attending to host folks in our new dwelling and have been so excited to activate soccer, hike by the woods, and make meals for all. David smoked wings for the primary time on his new smoker and so they turned out SO good. We relaxed till it obtained darkish and the household determined it was time to move out. All of us slept nicely that evening, drained and blissful from such a enjoyable and household crammed week.
And that’s a wrap on what stays my favourite week of the yr! I hope your Thanksgiving was an exquisite one, too. And now right here we go- formally diving head first into the Christmas season! Proof of that? Our elf was ready for us after we obtained dwelling on Thanksgiving evening. Let the enjoyable start!
