This year, we once again flew to NJ on the evening before Thanksgiving. Things were just a little bit different this year in that we had the festivities at my sister-in-law and brother-in-law’s house instead of at Dave’s parents’ house, and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law weren’t there because their son and daughter-in-law in Israel recently had a baby! We stayed at my sister-in-law and brother-in-law’s house, even though they weren’t at home.
On Thursday morning, we met up with my niece who brought 3 of her kids and 2 of her sister’s kids over and we got food at my (other) brother-in-law’s restaurant.
Gabbie and Simon went with them to a play place.
Meanwhile, Dave got to work making the turkeys. This would normally be done by my brother-in-law who was away, or my nephew, who also recently had a baby and was busy with his older kids.
We really didn’t watch the parade this year. We just caught a little bit on a replay because our friend’s daughter danced in the parade and we wanted to see her part! This is two of the cousins just after checking it out with Gabbie.
Not sure what we did the rest of the day while waiting for dinner time, but I did talk to Zachary and Gabbie talked to him later too. He had turkey for lunch!
My niece had some coloring and stickers for the kids to play with and Simon and Gabbie got involved too.
Here is my mother-in-law showing her little great-granddaughter some photos on her phone.
Requisite food photos, and a group shot of almost everyone who was there:
Gabbie and I were watching the Chiefs game during dinner. They lost. And everyone kept saying they didn’t know I liked football!
My little great nephew is a phone expert and he was showing us how he can access his videos on his mom’s phone. Simon and I wanted to see what would happen if she got a phone call, so Simon called. He paused his video, pushed the green button to answer the call, and then pushed the red button to hang up.
Here’s the cousins having a second dessert:
I ended up going to bed before everyone even left. I was starting to catch the cold that Dave had most of the prior week, and I couldn’t sleep well because I kept being unable to breathe / swallow. Finally Dave gave me some medicine! Gabbie and Simon went with their cousin to see Zootopia 2 that night.
In Israel, it was the newest baby’s bris, so Zachary was with the family there.
We had brunch again at the restaurant and did some food shopping for Shabbat. Then I took a nap and apparently I was snoring very loudly.
On Saturday night we met up with our good friends from college and we found out that they’ll be in Israel at the same time as us! So we are excited about that. Meanwhile, Zachary met up with his aunt before she left to fly home.
For Sunday, we didn’t really have anything to do and I convinced Dave it would be a good idea to drive Gabbie back to school. But first another restaurant meal:
We rented a car for the trip. It was raining and there was a lot of traffic so it took longer than planned to drive up there, but that’s ok! We didn’t go with her when she moved in this year, so it was our first time seeing her apartment on campus. We met two of her apartment mates and had dinner plus ice cream while we were there.
The drive back was not bad. On Monday, it was our last day there and we still didn’t have much to do, but before we went to the airport we went to Long Island City in Queens. It was sunset, so it was pretty out.
We had dinner at a Bukharian restaurant.
And then we had the latest flight home we’ve ever experienced! It was scheduled to leave at 8:55 but delayed till after midnight. The outgoing plane was delayed in Nashville, and we don’t think it was weather related even though it snowed at home. We didn’t arrive home until Tuesday morning at 4:30. Simon had a late start due to the snow, but we let him sleep in and took him to school after 11 AM. He missed taking the pre-ACT. Oh well.
So, overall, besides being a bit sick and having a late arrival back home, it was a good Thanksgiving!
