2022 – November part 3

Hey!

Turkey Day finally arrived.

We borrowed a table and chairs from Jacquie so everyone would have a place to sit. It was an experience! A little bit of chaos, and didn’t play out how I thought it would in my head. I imagined everyone sitting down and praying, maybe saying something they were thankful for, and of course eating. This was more of a come and go as you want and eat. It wasn’t bad, just different than what I imagined. We forced everyone to sit down for some photos and we got EVERYONE in the photo (I took the photo below and then cropped myself into it so I could be included). Two photos were taken, one by me, and another one by the wife so that I could be captured in the shot. I think the photo turned out well. For the middle photo, we can identify everyone: in the back row: me, Grampy (my dad), Ellie (aunt-in-law), Gramps (father-in-law), Grams (mother-in-law), the wife, and Grammy (my mom). In the front row: Louis (brother-in-law), Sophie (niece), Luca, Angel (sister-in-law), Elijah, Rosemary (niece), and Arabella.

After dinner, we had pie (and lots of it). We decided to go over to Minnie’s house as there were going to be more family gatherings after dinner. We stopped by and stayed for a bit. As someone who is not an extrovert, this was a very draining day, to say the least. I’m glad we did it though so our kids can have these memories of having a Thanksgiving with both Grandparents. Even if they don’t remember it, we will have the photos to last forever.

Sidenote: Minnie told the wife that she’d like to take our dog off our hands as she wanted a dog anyway. It’s a nice offer. We may take her up on that. Ever since the day after Thanksgiving, the dog has been barking a lot. It doesn’t matter what we do, we can walk in the room, sit in the other room, it’s everything and nothing lately that is a trigger. Kind of exhausting.

The very next day (Black Friday) we were on the go again. We took a trip out to our favorite free farm and picked out a beauty. Grams wasn’t included in the photo because she decided to wait in the car while we hunted for a tree. After getting the tree we took a trip to downtown Portland for the Annual tree lighting! It was the first time they had it in person since 2019 (which we went to as well). It was raining, but I think the whole thing was special, and I enjoyed doing it. They sing carols and whatnot before lighting it. If you can imagine: Grammy and Grampy singing, Arabella dancing, and Elijah and Luca both singing and dancing. Grams wasn’t singing, but I’m assuming she still enjoyed herself.

With the days being so short, we didn’t have time to decorate the tree until AFTER we got back from the tree lighting. Here is a photo of Grams helping us decorate the tree. The last time this happened was in 2016. Crazy how time flies. Enjoy the time with the people you have in your life while you can!

just Pray