i was a little skeptical about thanksgiving this year. i don’t know if anyone else experiences this when many of your family members are either divorced, remarried, or living all over the place, but having multiple thanksgivings can be exhausting. and it always leaves me feeling guilty for not being able to spend more time with everyone. every year, i spent thanksgiving driving all over the place. this year was no different.
my mom & i on thanksgiving
driving was cut down a bit due to the fact that i didn’t end up going to raleigh to my grandparents’ house. usually i will either meet my mom in winston, and ride with her to raleigh, or i’ll just drive straight to raleigh after i get done in either kernersville (dad & stepmom’s house) or mooresville (dad’s parents’ houses). or some combination of all of that. and then, of course, i spent time at brett’s parents’ house in mooresville. which is always fun.
every thanksgiving, easter, and christmas are like this.
brett & his brother and their christmas presents from their dad :)
and before someone in my family reads this and gets their panties in a wad, I AM NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT MY THANKSGIVING. or my family. i just hope that maybe one day, in the future, we can have one [christmas/thanksgiving/easter] where everyone is in the same place. just once. this hasn’t happened in, ohh, 13 years. and it would just be nice. because i leave my dad’s, and then i feel like i didn’t get to spend enough time with them. and then i leave my mom’s, and it’s the same thing. and this year i didn’t even get to SEE my grandparents (on either side!) for even more complicated reasons. well, my mom’s mom wasn’t feeling well so i don’t blame her. but the rest of the matter just doesn’t belong on the internet. it would be nice to see everyone together, and have a real thanksgiving.
anyway, i did thanksgiving dinner #1 and #2 with my family, and stayed at my mom’s house thursday night. i had originally planned to go to a bar in clemmons with becky and justin and kyle (more lifelong friends that i don’t get to see nearly often enough), and that quickly turned into going to the bar with becky AND her little brother (who, 20 years later, is still a turd), justin and kyle, nearly my whole freaking group of LAN party buddies/best friends from high school, and some other really close friends. i love all of you.
and then, somewhere in the midst of all the fun and reminiscing and whiskey & red bulls, i forgot to take a SINGLE picture while i was out at the bar with some of the most amazing people to ever walk into my life. but i will blame that on the fact that i was having entirely too much fun to even worry about it. it was perfect. the only thing that could’ve made it more perfect would be if brett had been there, but he was with his family.
i spent half of friday at a craft fair in greensboro with my mom, which was even more awesome than i expected. and somehow i managed to spend a lot more money than i expected. i bought a squid necklace (fairly certain no one i know will ever own one like it, either. win.), a metal tree to put in the front yard, way too much FUDGE!, a pair of AppState earrings, and a sign for the downstairs bathroom. stopped at burger king with my mom on the way home, packed up, and headed back to mooresville for the night.
brett’s mom had given me about a million of brett’s christmas ornaments for our tree, plus some other decorations she no longer used. which got me way too excited about christmas decorations. we drove back to charleston on saturday afternoon (hooray for beating thanksgiving traffic!), and within 10 minutes of arriving home that night, i had already emptied my suitcase and put up the christmas tree. i spent all night decorating it.
*shiiiny…*we also brought back his bed from college to put in the guest bedroom, and miraculously i was able to help brett get it up both flights of stairs without killing either of us. the mattress was the worst part that damn near broke my neck. he was going to call a friend to help carry it up but we had just gone to wal-mart and bought a brand new comforter set and pillows and i didn’t want to/couldn’t wait any longer.
*ta-da!!! and it is SO comfortable.*i also finished getting christmas decorations. we now have a wreath and lights outside, and my little metal tree is still standing. and brett bought a grill. steaks on said grill are TO DIE FOR.
*front porch!*
*…and the grill*
i hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving. i no longer feel guilty about listening to christmas music. before last week was just a bit much.
