A Different Thanksgiving ...

With a year full of changes, why should having a non-traditional kind of Thanksgiving be any different?

Dave and I longed for the peace and relaxation of a quiet Thanksgiving here in Holden. Josh and Jess had been up to visit a week or so ago and we had a nice turkey dinner with them while they were here. It was kind of our "Thanksgiving With Family" ...

We knew that on the actual day Daniel and Meghan would be busy with their own celebration in Georgia, Josh and Jessica would be with her family, and we figured Bree would maybe get together with her Grandma or something.

As it drew closer we decided that we really were having trouble knowing that Bree, Grandma, and Mo would be alone for Thanksgiving. Soooo -- we decided to let Wegmans do our cooking and ordered a complete Thanksgiving dinner from them. This was a first for us!

Dave and I packed up and were in the car by about 7 a.m. -- the dinner was ordered with plans for Bree to pick it up about noon. She was going to bring it to Grandma's and get things started while we made the drive in. We were blessed with light traffic and fantastic weather. We arrived with plenty of time for me to go and visit with Mo while Dave and Bree got dinner prep underway.

As for the dinner? It was ok. The turkey was great, the mashed potatoes were pretty good, stuffing was fair and the rest was nothing to write home about. But it was nice to be able to spend the day with family ... that was the real blessing.

Friday we were up early and out the door to spend a little extra time with Bree and then headed to The Arlington to have lunch with Patty and Steve (so nice ...) We headed back to Grandma's house where Josh and William were waiting to see us. William was adorable and told us Grandma's house "was not a good place to run around." I was able to give the hat I've been making him a try to see if the size is right (it is!) when we took a quick trip to the bedroom to sneak in a little "jumping on the bed" time.

We packed up and headed out around 5:00 ... we had originally planned to stay til Saturday but the thought of sleeping in our own bed and having a full weekend to enjoy was too hard to pass up (not to mention we were worried sick about the pipes in the house since we'd turned the heat off when we left -- what were we thinking?) We were blessed with very light traffic and made great time. We arrived to a house that was 47 degrees inside and had apparently lost power while we were gone (but it was back on ...)

It was great to sleep in a nice toasty bed with flannel sheets (and a pillow top!) and to wake up at "home" ...