Thanksgiving Week

Rick was scheduled to start a rotation the Monday of Thanksgiving week. Fortunately for him there was a mix up with his rotation assignment and he ended up not needing to start until the following week. This allowed him ample time to spend with his family. It was irritating at the time not having a rotation assigned but looking back I truly see the mix up as a blessing. Rick is so close to his brothers and truly is happy when he can spend time with them.

Since Steve and Stephanie now live in TN the only ones that needed to travel for the event were Chad, Sarah, and their kids (Josh & Mikayla).  They all survived the journey thankfully.

We spent a day in Harrogate just relaxing with Sarah and the kids waiting for Chad to get in from the airport. He took a later flight than his family. It was mostly stress free which is a rarity a larger family functions.

The next day the boys went golfing and while the Sarah and Stephanie came to our house to let the kids run wild and have some girl time. I have to say as far as sister-in-laws go I feel pretty blessed. These women are amazing. The boys joined us later and decided to play some video games, so the Sarah and Steph loaded the kids back into the car and headed for Harrogate. They had things to prep for the big meal the following day. A little while later it was discovered that the girls had taken the keys to the other car accidentally. To add to that dilemma the girls discovered that they were locked out of Grandpa’s house when they finally got to Harrogate. Chad and Steve rushed off to save their wives in our car leaving Rick, Kevin and I in Morristown waiting for one of them to return. In the mean time I decided to make a few extra pies and prep my green bean casserole for the next day. Eventually we Chad returned with keys and we were all finally able to make it inside Grandpa’s house.

Thanksgiving day the boys woke up and played some football. Being boys they played later than planned and had to rush home to finish their dinner assignments. I was trying really hard to instill the fact that we were eating at 1pm, not when everything was ready this year. I even told our friends they better not be late.

As a side tangent:  I have to say one thing I do not enjoy about the Jones family is that they all know how to procrastinate. Also punctuality is not something that is strongly enforced. It leads to trying to decide what to eat after the kids are already starving. It makes having happy kids hard sometimes because kids run like clockwork and if they have to wait to long there can be meltdown big enough to end an ice age.  I’ve grown accustomed to it over the years but if I feel stressed at all, it really irritates me. I was raised in a family where things started on time no matter who was there, and that if you were late you missed out. Ok enough of my rant.

I was actually impressed that everyone was at the table and we were eating by 1:30pm.

The food was delicious. We had a smoked Turkey, curtousy of the Passey's, and Rick’s brown bag classic Turkey. The sides were great and I’m sure I gained plenty of weight that day and even more the following eating the leftovers.

We had a wide range of pies to eat this year and Stephanie made a really rich Sweet Potato Casserole that went perfect for dessert.

Katie loved playing with her cousins. Her and Josh got along great this year and Brady tried hard to keep up with Mikayla, a feat in itself.

 

The following day we had family pictures taken. (post to come) We also played a decent game of Frisbee golf. We then stuck to tradition and went bowling.

That night after the kids went to bed (finally) we played a mean game of Trivial Pursuit. It was fun to finally sit around the table and laugh and play as adults.

The next morning we went to the Flea Market with Chad and Sarah. It was a little chilly but it did not disappoint in the people watching category. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon until Chad, Sarah, and the kids loaded into their rental car and headed to Louisville to catch their flight bright and early in the morning.

As far as Jones Family Thanksgivings go it was great. No major sickness or injuries. Lots of good food and plenty of family.