Thanksgiving Pedigo Style

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving started with a 3:00am alarm - I rolled over, looked at Will (may have cursed at him) - threw clothes on, started the coffee pot, filled the thermos and went to the car to warm it up, we loaded it the night before. Heat blasting, seat heater on, navigation set up, podcast playing (thankful we are making this drive in our nice new roomy Acadia and not the Subaru), and the go ahead to Will to bring out the girls... I had the notion in my head this whole driving 417.94 miles to Richfield Ohio, starting at 3:30am as Will insisted, was going to backfire....

Madison and Kate are wearily plucked from their warm cozy beds and trotted into the pitch black morning and buckled into their car seats - they have completely bewildered looks on their faces and Will assures me they will go right back to sleep. Let me just say we drove an hour with two girls talking non stop - can you say insane!? Eventually though, they fall back asleep, as do I, and the drive passes easily enough until we stop at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. For my friends on the West Coast who are not familiar with Cracker Barrel, let me just say, it is its own phenomenon. We enjoyed a lovely meal by the fire, browsed the gift shop and were on our way.




Painlessly enough, 6.5 hours after beginning (yes we made awesome time, I guess Will was right about leaving so early), we arrived in Richfield to Grandma Elaine's house. For those of you that don't know, Elaine is Will's 94 year old grandmother who still lives alone, belongs to the local Scrabble Club and religiously attends water aerobics - she is my hero.

{4 generations}

Madison honing her mad Scrabble skills with Grandma

Grandma catching up on her blog reading

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday of the year - and has become even more so since marrying Will. It is the one time of the year the entire family gets together. There is no stress around giving and getting gifts - the purpose is simply that of thankfulness, family, great company, good food, and plenty of drinks.

Will's Uncle Van, who lives one block up from Grandma, has built a fabulous cabin in his back yard. The cabin has become the meeting place for all of us. It is where we gather to visit, eat our meals, and after the kids are all in bed, share banter, inappropriate jokes, lots of laughter, and a few adult beverages (if you are ever lucky enough to visit, order a Tricky Ricky Micky, you will not be disappointed....).

{note the sippy cup, not for adult consumption}

Aside from a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner and catching up with family, we were blessed (or cursed depending on how you feel) with snow! The kids of course were in heaven and thank god for Nana's who actually enjoy taking them out for snowball fights!

{Kate is uncertain of the snow and the throwing of it, that's my girl!}

Deciding to beat the traffic, we departed Richfield on Saturday. We got off to a bit of a late start and it seemed to go (at least in my memory) downhill from there. All I remember (as I have blocked the experience from my head) was a freaking LOT of traffic - and feeling hungry, tired and very, very grouchy.

Although I clearly lived to tell about it, I have currently boycotted long car drives with my husband and children - is that the equivalent of spending an entire day flying across the country with an 18month old on your lap? It is starting to seem like it - but that will be the next post, that adventure is on Monday.... God help me.