Thanksgiving In The Ville

It's Thanksgiving Time ... one of my favorite holidays of the year. A time for family and a time to be thankful for the blessings in my life. I can think of so many things that I am thankful for this year: our health, my family, Roy's new job, true friends, a great church ... I could probably go on and on and still never list everything I am thankful for. Another blessing is that we get to head to Thomasville to visit with my family. It is the only holiday of the year that we all get together as a family. Over the years the attendance has waned at the annual dinner at Rabbit Pond Rd but I am thankful for the opportunity to visit with the family that does come.

So Wednesday morning we headed out to begin our journey to Thomasville. The ride always takes a ridiculously long amount of time with five people needing potty breaks at different times. This is another time I am thankful for our van with the dvd player. The kids listen to movies or music in their headphones and Roy and I listen to music on the radio. We got to town in time for dinner at Ruby Tuesdays with Mema, Pepa, Uncle Erik and Faith. This is the start of the family visit for us. The next morning Mom headed to Rabbit Pond Rd to start the turkey and sides while we slept in. I know it is a sacrifice for her to lose so much sleep and we truly appreciate it! After we all woke up, Mema gave the kids some Thanksgiving/Early Christmas presents.

The kids had a blast opening their presents. It was a real treat for them to get presents when the main treat was getting to be together!

Dinner is always a FEAST! The kids sat together and talked and laughed the whole meal through. It was so cute to watch them together. After lingering over the meal, clean-up is a family affair too. The football games are on the tv, the kids are amusing themselves, and there is great conversation in the kitchen. What a day!

We head home and let the kids play in Mema's playroom while we get ready for the movie. Mema and Pepa are in charge of babysitting while Erik, Roy and I head to Gateway Cinema to see "Blindside". What a good movie! Then back to Mema's for more conversations before a decent bedtime. We decided not to get up in the wee hours of the morning for the Black Friday sales so we were able to get some sleep and still head out in the morning for some shopping. We shopped the mall sales and then headed back to Thomasville for dinner at Crawdaddy's. That is always a treat. The weekend went by too quickly and before we knew it Saturday was here. After a lunch at Chick-Fil-A we got in the van and headed back to Chattanooga. It was a great weekend!