We officially started our holiday season today with Thanksgiving dinner #1 with my family. (Oh my word, I’m still stuffed HOURS later.)
We haven’t visited my folks in a while and since we have J’s folks coming to our house for the actual holiday we decided to make a quick (quick being relative since it’s a 5+ hour drive) trip up before the holiday. Fortunately my family was game with moving the holiday up to accommodate us so we spent the whole day doing nothing but cooking, socializing, and eating. And make no mistake, we definitely ate. A lot.
My whole entire immediate family (+ an uncle) was here which is always cool. I know these days can’t last forever so it’s especially nice when we can make it happen. Most of the grandkids were also here so Ava had cousins upon cousins to play with. And to be clear, by play with I really mean boss around. She’s the youngest so she tends to be a tad bit spoiled (by everyone) sometimes.
What I really love about these days is that I can relax a bit with Ava. It’s so nice to know that I don’t have to eagle eye her every minute because I know that my mom and my sisters and her cousins are watching her too. On top of that, it warms my heart to know that all of this running about and playing with her cousins are building these lifetime memories for her. I remember all of the holidays with my grandparents/aunts & uncles/cousins and I so want her to have at least a taste of the same. It’s harder, of course, since we don’t live close enough to make it an everyday thing but we’re doing what we can with what we’ve got.
Also nice is making that last minute trip to the grocery store (that’s a Thanksgiving tradition too, isn’t it?) and running into an old childhood friend that you haven’t seen in years and years and years. That can only ever happen in your hometown and you realize how much you miss stuff like that after you’ve moved on and moved away. I mean, running into people we know happens at (now) home but these are people I’ve known for 12 years or less. The gal I ran into today has known me almost my whole life. Even though we don’t often talk there’s just a comfort level with people you’ve known and been friends with forever that you don’t have with anyone else.
You know what I don’t miss about my hometown, though? Trains. Stupid whistle-blowing at all hours of the night gets old fast…
Heading back home tomorrow and will jump right back into the hectic rat race and all of the stress that awaits me in my real life. But today was a really, really nice day and gave both J and I a desperately needed break. The rare opportunity to relax a bit today made the whole drive worth every minute.