Early Thanksgiving - (Louisville, KY)

Well, we've been taking it easy for the most part.  Linda is feeling better and we were getting closer to leaving Kentucky.

But first we spent Saturday with my folks and my Mom and Linda worked on preparing an early Thanksgiving dinner for Sunday.  Linda made pumpkin and pecan pies and Mom already had the table set.

 

 

In the evening, we visited our friends Jeff & Stephanie.  Jeff graduated from Jeffersontown High School with me and we became friends while at Western Kentucky University.  Linda also went to "J-town" and joined us at WKU a year later.

We've had quite a history together, and later in life, Stephanie worked for me and we became even better friends.  Now, she handles all our mail as we travel.

On this night, we decided to stay in and Stephanie made a wonderful dinner.  After eating and getting caught up, we showed them some photos and videos of our Africa trip.

We ended up talking about various matters, some serious and some not so serious, until 2:00 a.m. - a rare thing for us indeed.  Fortunately, none of us had any early deadlines on Sunday.

Of course we slept in the next morning.  Then we headed over to my parents' house.  I set up our big screen and projector to show photos and videos after our afternoon dinner.  Linda and Mom prepared a delicious spread with the help of my second cousins, Samantha and Brandy.

Their mother, Gaye, one of my favorite cousins who was like a sister to me, passed away in November 2008 after years of battling cancer.  The girls spent many, many days with my parents after I was off to college and there is still a strong bond.  Along with their father, Barry, they keep an eye on things, and we are very thankful for them and for their presence at today's Thanksgiving dinner.

 

   

And I know my parents were happy to have them there.

 

 

Let's see, we had fruit salad, turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, asparagus casserole, peas, noodles, mac & cheese, cranberry salad, baked apples, stuffed celery, gravy, rolls, and, of course two pies.  We had called it a "mini-Thanksgiving", but the food didn't reflect anything "mini".  :)

Ah, but in the planning, Linda & I insisted on having lots of leftovers to take with us.  Mission accomplished.

After dinner, the ladies worked on the dishes and Barry drove my Dad & I over to my aunt's house to deliver her a plate of food and dessert.  My Dad's sister, Maude S., is 97 years old and still pretty sharp.  She told us a couple of tales about my Dad I hadn't remembered him bringing up before.  :)

Once we got back, we showed all of our videos from Africa and some photos.  I'm sure it was somewhat boring, but my Mom wanted to see everything.

Eventually, we called it a night and said our goodbyes with an eye toward leaving town on Monday.  But, we weren't really mentally prepared to leave, so we left open the possibility of sticking around.

On Monday, it was rainy and we decided we weren't ready.  Knowing that the weather would be worse on Tuesday, we made the decision to stick around until Wednesday. 

It was a relaxing day and we did a little work, but mostly watched T.V.  The highlight of the day was our dinner of leftovers.  :)

Today, Tuesday, it is rainy as was forecasted.  But we are getting ourselves prepared to leave and we will take off tomorrow.  We should make it down into Tennessee tomorrow.  We have a couple of spots picked out, but we'll decide tonight where we will be going.

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for, and we're glad we got to celebrate the holiday, albeit a bit early, with family.

We wish all of you a safe and happy holiday and we'll see many of you soon - in the warmer south.  :)

---

 

 

Comments

[Hembree]

I know where a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner will be on Thanksgiving Day in Tennessee...give me a call if you're interested!

[Rick and Kathy Rousseau]

Glad you're back.

Followed you on your trip as much as we could.

From the size of that spread there was more than just the Celery that was stuffed.

Happy Holidays.

[Nancy and Bill]

Happy Thanksgiving to you!!

Glad you got to spend time with your family:o)

Safe Travels and Happy Trails....

[Sherry]

Just want you two to know how thankful I am for YOU!! See today's blog www.directionofourdreams.blogspot.com

Definitely going to be lookiing you up for weighing in Florida and hopefully seeing you at some of the other spots you'll be.

Can't thank you enough.

[Howard]

Lisa,
Thanks for the offer. :)

Sherry,
Thank you so much for the sentiments. We LOVE our RV-Dreams Family. :)