Thanksgiving

With great fear and trepidation we headed south for Thanksgiving. Who doesn’t dread a two day drive with small children? But it was worth it to see Grandma, Grammy and Different Papa. The only thing that could have made it better would have been for my brother and his family to be able to make it. This trip is going to be our Christmas so we won’t be going back to see them this year.

The trip down was uneventful and the two small children traveled very well all things considered. The roads were clear and Missouri is so beautiful. We got to Grandma’s house as soon as we could and she immediately started giving the children their Christmas presents. Even without those they were so thrilled to see her and I love to see her bouncing around like a little kid with 8 and The Goblin Child.

The next day, Thanksgiving, my parents got there. The party was going again immediately. We played and laughed and visited and ate of course. The only problem is that as always it never lasts long enough. And maybe that it rained most of the time. We had hoped to go to Silver Dollar City to see the Christmas lights, oh well. With visits to Lamberts, Home of the throwed rolls, The Bass Pro Shop and PFI squeezed in our short time was over all too quickly.

It didn’t stop raining just because we had to drive home, so with lunch at Steak and Shake we started off. The drive was beautiful we tried a back way through the rolling hills and farm land, crossing rivers with water falls and small towns much more reminiscent of the Missouri I remember as a child than the modern well off developments we drive through now on Highway 13. By dark the rain was still falling as we watched the temperature drop to thirty. When we could see the trees and grass along the road it was coated in ice but the road stayed wet.

Passing only one wreck but two separate ambulances we made it to Lincoln for the night. Despite our incredible rudeness in not mentioning our coming through, we had meant to we really did, my husbands aunt had called us and invited us to spend the night after she heard about it from another source. We got to see her new house, beautiful, and she treated us to a delicious breakfast she made and the children loved playing with her. The room to run and play was great after being couped up in the car so long.

The next day we bid reluctant farewells and set out to finish the journey. Interstate 80 was packed, it was till raining and the temp hovered in the upper twenties. After debating the benefits of the interstate, more traffic, verses the drawbacks, more traffic, we got off at Grand Island and headed north. After lunch at Valintinos of course! And a quick stop at Good Will for more leg stretching, where I wound up buying more stuff despite a car packed to the gills already.