November was a fun month. We took a trip to WI to surprise my family for Thanksgiving. I have not been home for Thanksgiving since I moved to Utah 5 years ago, so my family really didn’t expect us to be there, giving us the perfect opportunity to surprise them. We purchased our plane tickets mid-September and managed to keep our secret safe all the way to Thanksgiving! I talk to my mom every day, so there was more than once that I almost slipped up myself and gave it all away. The closest call we came to our secret being blown was when my friend Larissa’s dad (who happens to be a federal milk inspector) made a routine visit to my parents’ farm and told my parents he thought Larissa was having dinner with me over Thanksgiving. My parents, who were totally in the dark, were convinced he was just confused and thinking of some other friend of Larissa. Lucky us!
We flew to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport on the evening before Thanksgiving—luckily missing the blizzard on both ends of the trip. Thanksgiving day we picked up our rental car and drove the 4 hours to dinner at my Dad’s cousin’s house. This was the first actual holiday we have spent with my Dad’s side since getting married—so that was very fun—lots of food, chit-chat, and general relaxing to be had.
Friday night we went out with friends. Going out with friends has changed over the years. I spent most of dinner holding a 3-month-old, while a 3-year-old and 15-month-old did their best to squirm and flirt with all of those around us. Larissa’s children (20mos & 3mos) were with daddy for the night, or the children in the group would have nearly outnumbered the adults! Dinner was so much fun, but I wonder when we all grew up. After asking if I had any surprise news worth making a surprise trip for, my great friend Andy informed me he figured I was coming home to announce that we were expecting a baby. After informing him that this was not yet the case he said he was going to keep telling people I was pregnant anyway. 🙂 Old friends are the best.
Saturday my mom’s side of the family got together for their 2nd Thanksgiving dinner! They had scheduled Thanksgiving dinner for the Sunday before the holiday, in order to make things easier on my aunt and cousins who work at a holiday store at the mall (as you can imagine it’s CRAZY there during Black Friday weekend). We couldn’t move the holiday without tipping off my parents that we were coming, so we decided to see if everyone would be willing to gather again the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Once we arrived and surprised my parents, it dawned on my mother that my grandmother had invited them to dinner Saturday not just because she was being nice, but because everyone was getting together again in honor of our visit! My family is the best!!
Jason said our visit was just the way a vacation should be: warmer weather (than Utah at least), lots of food, not too much running around, and plenty of friends and family to chat with.
In other exciting news, my parents will be spending Christmas in Utah this year!! I suggested they visit, partly as a diversion from our Thanksgiving trip, but never thought they would actually make it happen! Please pray for good travelling weather for them. They will be arriving on the 22nd and leaving on the 29th. My mom says in 34 years of marriage she can’t remember ever taking a trip like this for Christmas, where they won’t have to milk and feed cows. Luckily they have good help that’s willing to work for them even on Christmas, and my brother will be staying close to home in case anything unexpected should arise.
Thanks to my brother Jim who helped give my laptop a total life makeover (i.e. new hard drive and operating system) during our visit. Thanks to the Kahler’s, Spankowski’s, Larissa, KTP, and all the family who forced themselves to have a 2nd Thanksgiving dinner just to see us! Every time we visit I am reminded what amazing friends I have gathered through the years. If we missed you this time, perhaps we’ll see you next time…which looks like it will be late May. See you then!
S.~