Monday, November 28, 2011

Thanksgiving Travels

With our move happening right at the end of November, we were especially thankful for our Thanksgiving holiday spent with both families. Since Steve's last day of work in Jackson is the 29th & his first day of work in Lima on the 1st, his boss gave him the whole week of Thanksgiving off. We spent the first few days with my family in Indiana and the rest of the time with Steve's family in Colorado.

We left Jackson early Friday (18th) afternoon and headed to meet up with our good friends in KY. We were initially going to stay the night with them, but Steve decided to make the IN trip all in one night. After having dinner with our friends, we said goodbye and finished our trek north. We didn't get in to my parent's house until around 2 am. We woke up Saturday morning to the smell of Thanksgiving :). My mom was frantically finishing up some deserts and all the vegetable sides to be loaded up in the van and carted to my sister's house.

We enjoyed my family Thanksgiving meal around lunchtime at my sister's house. Complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, corn, stuffing, rolls, and even gravy. My family has a history of not making gravy. My grandma used to do it all the time, but since she passed away, no one really cares if there's gravy or not (except for Steve). Last year, I tried to scramble together gluten free gravy (half my family eats gluten free), but it didn't set up and had no taste. In order to avert another gravy catastrophe, both my mom and myself had jar gravy for Steve -- whew!

After the meal, all the females (not counting my 4 little nieces) headed to a movie (Twilight, yes, you read that correctly) while the men "babysat" and played computer games. (We later found out their babysitting consisted of 2 movies and a few Man vs. Wild episodes). Our family Thanksgiving continued into Sunday, only this time it was located at my parents' house.

On Monday, Steve and I helped my parents prep their house for Christmas. Steve worked with my dad out in the shed, pulling out all the various lawn chotsky and Christmas lights, while I worked inside with my mom putting up the Christmas tree. My mom and I decorated the tree and put out the nativity all while watching White Christmas (tradition) and Elf. After my dad conned Steve into helping cleaning out the garage as well, they played a couple more rounds of their computer game while my mom and I finished up. When all the various projects were accomplished, we loaded up the car with our stuff & my parents drove us to Indy to stay at a hotel with shuttle service to the airport, so that we could make our 6am flight to Colorado.

Tuesday through Saturday was spent at the Ackermans. Steve's grandparents, brother, sister and new brother-in-law also came in for the holidays. While in CO, we did various activities like see the Muppets, shopping at an Outlet Mall, and helping around the house. My jobs tended to involve things in the kitchen, like baking pumpkin pies and helping bake a surprise cookie cake for our new brother-in-law. Steve's jobs were a little more involved -- fixing a computer, changing a flat tire, and a dangerous expedition on the roof to find an animal opening. We especially enjoyed being able to sleep in, being fed, and just enjoying spending time with his family.

We left Colorado Saturday evening and flew into Nashville around 11 pm. (Side note> we drove one car up to my parents' house and left it there. We rented a car in Nashville and drove back to Jackson, arriving around 1:30am). We both had to be up early to help out at church (me in the nursery, and Steve working the camera in 1st service). I have helped out in our church's nursery for almost a year. It was tough saying goodbye to the little ones, but even harder saying goodbye to my fellow nursery workers.

We had such a great time visiting with both of our families. This holiday couldn't have come at a better time. Steve and I were able to really appreciate and be thankful for the many things God has blessed us with -- from family to provision in Steve's job situation. I'm especially thankful for the rest and relaxation because the next few days following our trip because the next few days are slated for our move to Ohio!

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