Thanksgiving in Virginia

We had a whirlwind Thanksgiving this year. Malew, the kids, and I headed out toward Virginia on Tuesday, the 25th, stopping overnight in Columbia, SC to stay with some friends. (Thanks goes to Ms. Juanita, who's house is now dubbed by Jonathan as the Granny house.) We took our time traveling, and made a few stops to shop and eat when we wanted to. On one of our gas stops, a very kind Marine let Jonathan sit on his motercycle and rev it up and allowed me to take some pictures. Interestingly enough, in the course of general chit chat, it came out that I'd be seding the picture to my husband, who was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. It's a small world, because I then learned that this nice man was headed to Lackland Air Force Base himself for some training!

 

We arrived at Derek and Kat's house in Emporia, VA late Wednesday afternoon, and I have to say it wasn't a moment too soon; we were tired from a long day of non-hurried, multi-state travel with three children. We had a nice evening where the cousins all got to play together and the grown-ups could chat, then headed off to bed for some much needed rest.

On Thursday (Thanksgiving day), the Leonards arrived for brunch and a day of visiting between the families. Kat and Katherine snapped a bunch of pictures of the kids playing outside while I was trying to get the webcam to work so that Austin could be in on the fun. Then Thanksgiving dinner itself was served around 5:00 p.m., and what a feast it was; I think everyone had prepared a dish or two and had a hand in it in some way. Afterwards we sat around talking and working on cross stitching/knitting/crocheting while watched the kids play the Wii, build lego houses, and generally just enjoy the time with their long-distance cousins. It was a late night and we all headed to bed after the Leonards got back on the road to Powhatan.

 

We ventured out on Black Friday for some great deals of Christmas gifts...we enjoyed lunch at the Olive Garden, where we met up with part of the Leonard clan and celebrated Katherine's birthday with soup, salad, and a nice chocolate cake! We hit Michael's craft store, where some rude young cashier commented on my poor mothering skills after Jonathan had a meltdown in the checkout line. Unlucky for that cashier, she chose to make ugly comments about me to the person standing who had been behind me in line...and the person behind THAT person was Katherine - my sister-in-law. Katherine quickly put her in her place, and after telling me about it outside, it was all I could do not to go back in the store and go off. But I was nice and didn't.

We split up again, Katherine and family heading back to their house, and we headed back to Derek and Kat's to pack up and get some rest before heading out for home on Saturday. Our drive home took eleven and a half hours, but we stopped in Smithville, NC for some outlet shopping, where I picked up a few more Christmas gifts. The weather didn't help us any, and it poured rain and spit fog for 3/4 of the trip.

But all in all, it was good. It was lonely without Austin...it didn't feel right. And it was a bit sad, because that was supposed to be the weekend that I showed up and revealed to everyone (by them seeing me) that I was pregnant. So I was a bit focused on "what might have been"....but at the same time, I enjoyed it very much. I'm so thankful for family. I have never been treated like anything other than family by the Lewises, and it's a wonderful feeling, in contrast to how I was treated by Matthew's biological father's family when we were married. I made a point to tell everyone that at our Thanksgiving dinner.

Anyway, that's our whirlwind Thanksgiving. Now on to Christmas...and Austin coming home!