Our Thanksgiving Week, Days One, Two, and Three

It's a rainy Saturday afternoon and the first chance I've had to start writing about our wonderful Thanksgiving week.  I will probably need to break it into several posts.  

Last Thursday when I was writing, we were having a snow day.  It really WAS a snow day.  Our area got about a foot of snow!  The schools, even Penn State, were closed both Thursday and Friday.   It was so beautiful, and by Friday afternoon our roads were nice and bare.  

The timing was perfect!  Lisa, George, and Sophie left Tampa on Friday and drove to Columbia, SC.  I told them when they left their hotel on Saturday morning that they should let me know when they first see snow.  Around 4 PM Sophie sent me a picture saying, "I got to touch snow for the first time ever!"  And Lisa posted pictures of Nilla Bean and Stella going to the bathroom in the snow for the first time!

Saturday, November 17

I had made sloppy joe meat and was making molasses ginger snaps at Anthony and Lori's place when they finally arrived around 7:30 PM.  What a noisy, exciting time!  We had a WONDERFUL evening catching up.   Hunter gradually made friends with the dogs, and Austin and Sophie connected on their iPads.  The new board games, I guess!

Sunday, November 18

On Sunday morning Dick and I went to GBRV first and then to Calvary.  We knew the rest were all coming too, but we didn't see them before we went into the service.  Dick and I crawled past two people sitting at the aisle to get to our seats, leaving an empty seat between them and Dick.  He put his coat on that seat.  After a while a guy crawled past those two people to take that empty seat, so Dick moved his coat.  After the service was over and we were walking out we suddenly noticed that George was walking in front of us.  Later we CRACKED UP when we found out the it was he that sat next to Dick and we never even looked at him, hahahaha!!!  He said he was thinking, "Wow, I guess they're really into this service!"   What friendly people we are.  Not!  Unbelievable!

Anthony, Lori, and Lisa had sat out in the lobby where you can watch the service on a screen.  We decided after the service that it was a great time and place to take pictures.  We will treasure these for sure!

There were lots of leftovers of things I'd made earlier in the week, so we had those for lunch.  Then it was time to try some sledding.  Not me, of course!!  I went out long enough to get some pics.  Sophie is quite a trooper.  She learned how to sled down a hill, decided she liked going down on her belly the best (!), she hiked in the snow and was out there for hours!!  Even the dogs had a lot of fun running in the snow!

Lisa and I went inside and "chilled" by the fireplace.  It was so perfectly relaxing.  Anthony was on the sofa at the other end of the room, and we had some good laughs.  I just love being with my children.

We had planned to go to our favorite BBQ, Doan's Bones, for dinner that evening, so we loaded up into two vehicles, went over the mountain, drove up, and discovered they had already closed!!  So we headed back over the mountain and via texting back and forth, decided to go to Plaza Mexicana Grill instead.  That was a perfect choice.  We had a great time and scrumptious food.

Monday, November 19

Dick took vacation from work Monday through Thursday, so on Monday we went over to Anthony and Lori's bright and early to load up Lisa's family, including the dogs, into our van for a day trip down home.   Our first destination was Richland Christian Home to visit Grandma Mary.  It was a short, very sweet visit, including lots of laughter as is always the case when visiting her.  We just couldn't believe how much taller Sophie is than her great grandma now!!

We visited in her room for a while, then she took us on a tour of the home.  It's such a lovely, comfortable place with a beautiful view of farmland.  

When we went out to the car we took some pictures in front of that country view. 

Our next destination was Grandpa Stauffer and Arlene's for lunch.  She had delicious home-made chicken corn soup.   We made sure to get a group picture afterward, as well as a four-generation picture.

Sophie was so intrigued by the antique pump organ.  She had never seen anything like it.  I took this video too soon, because she kept working at it and working at it and eventually got better than when I first videoed her.  

After we left their place we decided to go to the nearby city of Lebanon to track down our favorite mail carrier!  Thankfully he took time to check his phone and told us his location.  We put it in our googlemaps and we found him!  What a sweet, hilarious little sidewalk visit!  

We were hoping to see Jenn and the kids too, but they would not be getting home from school and work till much later, and Lisa's family was eager to get back to Anthony and Lori's.  They were really tired of being in a car, understandably so!  Two days in a car to get up here and two more days in a car later in the week to get back home.  

Since I of course had not cooked anything that day, we picked up salad and pizza before we got back to Anthony and Lori's.   Here's a cute picture of Hunter and the pups from that evening.  Looks like they're wanting some Doritos too!

So that was our first three days together.  Much more to come!