Quite frankly, we usually don’t do anything extraordinary for our Thanksgiving vacation. We get dinner started in the morning, watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, fix plates of food for our elderly neighbors (who have no relatives to visit with them) and that’s about it. In the afternoon the kids are either outside or glued to their Xbox, hubby is asleep, and I’m on the computer. Pretty much a normal day around these parts.
The past two years have been different though. Last year, my sister and her family came to Richmond to spend the holiday with us; this year we traveled to Pennsylvania to spend the holiday with her!
I love going home for the holidays. It brings back so many wonderful memories of my departed mother and father and grandparents, and just simply being there brings a zen feeling over me that all is right with the world when I am at home. Even though I have lived in Richmond going on 19+ years, Pennsylvania is still home for me.
Travel Preparations
The Man Thing could not make up his mind when he wanted to leave. First, we were going to travel on Saturday, the 23rd, then he changed his mind and said we would leave on the 26th after the boys were out of school. So I really wasn’t into the whole packing and double-checking everything until Monday evening and did a holiday road trip checklist to make sure that I didn’t forget anything. {Why do something ahead of time when you can wait till the last minute, right?}
Naturally {as usual} something had to throw a wrench into the plans. Our local news was broadcasting about a wintery mix storm moving up the East Coast, right about the same time that we were planning to leave on Tuesday. In conjunction with a few other issues we were having with the car, it looked as though we were not going to be going anywhere this year. We finally made the decision to leave in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday {around 4 a.m. to be exact when normal people are still asleep!} to stay ahead of the storm. All went according to plan and we arrived home before noon on Tuesday with minimal traffic delays or weather problems.
We’re Here!
We had a great time while we were there! My sister and I hugged and laughed and cried {as usual} and got caught up with each other. Funny how you can talk to someone several times a week and still miss so much … probably because we both have kids and husbands yelling and running around in the background and you can’t hear yourself THINK let alone TALK to someone! The dogs were ecstatic to see each other once again and after a few minutes of “checking things out” Molly settled in just like she’d lived there her entire life. Jonathan got to see his “Angel puppy” and snuggle with her before she took off cavorting around with Molly and the three cats – Lucy, Milo and Dr. Luke.
Daily Summary
Wednesday, Danielle and I were getting things ready for dinner the next day while her husband, Ken, went to pick up my niece from Pittsburgh so she could spend the holidays with us. John was too sleepy to get out of bed and missed out on an all day driving adventure with Ken and picking up something for his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers collection! Every five minutes we’d hear, “Is Ken back yet?” The man was bored out of his mind without his partner in crime lol!
Thanksgiving Day came and we had an excellent meal! Danielle made this absolutely divine ham soaked in Raspberry Wine that was to die for. I couldn’t stop eating it! We talked to the kids about our plans for Friday and tried to make sure that they were “on board” with what we would be doing.
Friday came and we prepared to travel to the Hope Rescue Mission in Reading. Getting eight people in my sister’s van was “interesting” to say the least and I’ll leave it at that! We had an awesome time volunteering at the mission, and you can read all about that here. I had thought of hijacking my sister and taking off to do some Black Friday shopping, but after my nieces came home and told me what a nuthouse the stores were, we decided to stay in and have a bottle (or two) of wine instead!
Saturday the guys took off and went to Cabella’s in Hamburg while Danielle and I stayed home with Jonathan and Shane and made turkey soup and baked cookies and just enjoyed some girl time together. The guys brought back some of the most incredible fudge I have ever eaten in my life from Cabella’s. Definitely on the list to stop in there again when we go home!
Sunday morning it was up bright and early and off to church at CEFC where everyone had an awesome time – and nobody fell asleep! Hubby enjoyed it so much that he said he would drive home every weekend just to attend church services there! (I know, I was amazed too!) We rushed back home from church and packed up our belongings and had a quick lunch, and then it was off to see my biological dad, Kenny, that I had not seen in about 14 years. Yes, its been that long I’m ashamed to say. He had the chance to meet hubby and the two boys, and I had the chance to meet his fiancé, Linda, whom I fell in love with on the spot. She reminds me a lot of mom. (then again, all dad’s girlfriends/wives have always reminded me of mom … he’s been married four times). We spent about 2 hours chatting and catching up, and then it was time to head home.
Traffic Nightmares
I didn’t think (what else is new) when it came to the fact that we were traveling home, from Thanksgiving vacation, on a Sunday. Just like 20 million other people. The traffic was absolutely horrible, there were accidents everywhere (several that looked pretty bad), and we almost had a fender-bender as well when someone cut in front of us. Hubby had to slam on the brakes and swerve to the side of the road to keep from hitting the jerk in front of us. Tre and I got banged up a bit from that, but we are fine, just a little sore Sunday and Monday. We left Pennsylvania at 3pm and didn’t arrive home till 11:15pm that evening. A normal 5 to 6 hour drive took us 9 hours to complete. We sat in stop-and-go traffic 26 miles from home for two hours. Jonathan threatened on more than one occasion to get out and walk home stating he could get there faster. He probably would have been right!
That was our exciting week away from home! Leave a comment below and let us know what you did for Thanksgiving!
You sure had a more interesting Thanksgiving than I did. But I still had a lot of fun. I watched the Macy's parade, and my sister cooks the dinner, and she put the turkey in the oven. We read the big thick newspaper with all the ads and drank nice hot coffee. I just loved the dinner that my sister made, it was so delicious! Then we went to my sister's house where we all got together and shared pies! I know what you mean when you say that you talk to your sister every day and when you get together you have so much fun. That is what I did on Thanksgiving!