A Thankful Thanksgiving

Last year Dave and I and the girls ate Thanksgiving dinner with just the four of us. We had fun, but after dinner, it was just a little lonely. We both grew up with big families and had never had a lonely Thanksgiving, so we packed up our desserts and walked over to our friends' house and shared desserts with them and their families in town.

So this year, we decided since we couldn't be with "family" we would be with our "family" in GA. Jen and Eric invited us down and after a six hour drive that should have been 3 1/2 hours, we arrived. I know I miss my friends every day, but I didn't realize how much until they were all standing on the porch when we got there. Seriously, I miss them. We had so much fun. Here are the highlights:

Getting to see Jen, Terah and Miki and all the husbands and kids except Tripp who was in bed for the festivities before the Morris clan left for Alabama.

Preparing the best Thankgiving Dinner I've ever had: Jen's fabulous strawberry salad, Eric's fried turkey, Dave's potatoes, Jen's recipe for the best broccoli cheese casserole ever, gravy from a jar (my contribution), rolls, Jen's homemade Dutch-apple pie and razzleberry pie.

We sat down to Jen's beautifully decorated table and Doug joined in the festivities.

We all named three things we were thankful for:

Amelia: Friends, Family and Toys

Mikayla: Uncle Doug, Aunt Marla and Kaitlyn

Jack: Ho Ho (Santa)

This is why the dinner was so darn good....fried turkey!!! Seriously, I think it's a Southern thing because until I moved here, I had never even heard of it, but it is better than you can imagine. Dave and Amelia made the potatoes...so yummy, except for the fact that we decided Baby Grayson should get to try some of Thanksgiving Dinner and when he ate the potatoes, he gagged and threw them up!

It takes a minute for kids to warm up to us after being gone for so long, but when Jack fell head first into the fireplace and had blood streaming down his face, he wanted Aunt Chaun to hold him and calm him down and I loved EVERY MINUTE of it. From then on, he would walk around and say (with his binky in his mouth) "Aunt Sawn, Aunt Sawn."

And when it came time to clean up, Doug and Jen did all the dishes, Eric and I cleared and did the other stuff and Dave went to sleep on the chair. I went over and said (yelled), "DAVE, IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HELP, DON'T SIT HERE AND SLEEP ON THE CHAIR WHILE EVERYONE ELSE CLEANS!!!!" So, he went up to bed and slept. We'll blame it on the tryptophan or whatever it's called.




The next day we shopped till we dropped at the outlet mall that I miss SO MUCH that is only five minutes up the road. It was packed and crazy, but so much fun!!!!

I got to talk to a great friend who is going through a horrible situation and realized how strong and amazing she really is...it was inspiring.

I got to stay in a house that I felt so comfortable in, I stayed in the one pair of pajamas that I brought about 90% of the time and didn't realize it until now.

The downside? Amelia threw up all over the carpet (twice) and on Jack's beautiful down comforter.

The very best thing? I got to experience Thanksgiving the way I did growing up...with people I love.
I love my GA Family!!!!!