Thanksgiving 2008

Chances are if I haven't posted in several days, and there's a holiday sandwiched in there somewhere, I have been out-of-town. I don't always like to announce that beforehand, because I don't want one of you taking advantage of our absence and breaking in our house and stealing our valuables....ok, more like valuable, you know, just the one. Anyway, we made the 10 hour trek to Mississippi last Tuesday for family, food, and more family and more food. I have eaten a shameless amount of food. I'm thinking hibernation is an option. I ate enough to sustain me at least until March. I felt like a newborn, eating every 3 hours. If only I was kidding.....

MONDAY
We had our first Thanksgiving feast on Monday. It was a POD/Thanksgiving get-together with some familiar POD faces and some non-POD church staff. We had a really great time! The kids played outside in the dark, ate outside, and then came in to play the Wii which is exactly what they did when there was no power. Turns out kids can entertain themselves without power even when they have power. Who knew?


TUESDAY
Tuesday morning we headed out. I have to say it's much nicer when we all 4 of us make the drive. I drove and Mac fielded phone calls both personal and business. We made terrible time with several stops, so it was getting dark as we hit the home stretch which doesn't seem like a problem until you begin to see the deer standing a couple feet off the road. In the ongoing Deer vs The Car saga, we have had 2 direct hits and don't care to have another. But we made it without incident......this time. Maybe the deer recognized that it was me, not Mac, driving.


WEDNESDAY
Wednesday, we headed over to see my brother, Hank and his wife, Christie who is due with their first child on Dec. 27th. I checked out all the changes they have made to the house, but best of all I got to see the NURSERY! It was adorable! For a moment I thought I had baby fever. Turns out it was only nursery fever. All I really wanted was to decorate a nursery and get all the baby goodies, not actually have another baby. I know Mac finds that reassuring. Then the boys had a pickup game of football in the yard. They certainly played with more enthusiasm than Mississippi State did.

H.A., Christie, Parker (in womb), Me, Holland, & Grey

Hank uses the "Mr. Miagi" play. Personally, I like the "Statue of Liberty" play, but this is a close second.

Then we headed back to Starkville for a family lunch at Lil' Dooey's, the ONLY BBQ I will eat, even though I live in Texas. Then we ate again that night with different family at a different restaurant. Are you seeing a theme here? See Family, Eat Food.

See, I told you so.....

Holland and Ran do lunch.

Holland, Me, and Mallory Ann

When the girls got rowdy, we made them drop and give us 20.

(without getting their clothes dirty, of course.)

THURSDAY
Thursday, we drove to Tupelo and ate Thanksgiving lunch with Mac's side of the family, stopped by Elvis' childhood home (of course) and then headed to Mac's brother's house for fun and tomfoolery. Then we drove back to Starkville for Thanksgiving dinner with my family.

FRIDAY
Friday, Grey, Mac, and Grandaddy played a little tennis, and then watched Mississippi State get shellacked (I spellchecked that word,by the way)by Ole Miss while eating Thanksgiving leftovers. Then Ran and Papa kept the kids while Mac and I went AND SAW A MOVIE, the new James Bond flick. Love it. Then we headed home Saturday. I drove while Mac fielded phone calls about the just-announced resignation of the MSU head coach. Sigh! Now we need a pastor and a head coach.

To sum it up, which I probably should have done 3 paragraphs ago, we ate 3 Thanksgiving meals and the kids spent time with 4 grandparents, 4 uncles, 4 aunts, 3 cousins, and 1 mannequin. Made the long drive worth it.

The Bear and Grandaddy



Dottie and Holland

Dottie is actually chained to the house with an alarm. She was manniquin-napped a while back (welcome to a college town) and she spent several wild days between fraternity and sorority row. She made it back home, dirty and a little worse for wear, but thankfully not knocked up.


I truly am thankful for our family and the fact that my stomach did not explode from the sheer volume of food I consumed.