Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving holiday was eventful to say the least. It's one of my favorite holidays, so I've been looking forward to it!

I got off work a little early the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We packed the car that morning before work, so all I had to do is pick up Bailey and break down her crate. We hopped in the car and picked Josh up from work. We got on the road around 3:30. We didn't expect to get home before 1am, but traffic wasn't nearly as bad as we expected. I could have told you when we got to NC just by the radio. We heard Scotty McCreery as much in that last few hours as we would in a week up here! Haha. Anna and John were driving to Raleigh from Miami that same night. It was kind of fun keeping up with where they were in relation to us, it gave us something different to do. We ended up passing them on 95! We got home around 11:30. I was completely exhausted, but we still ended up staying up until about 2:30 catching up with the family. We stay at Josh's mom's when we go home. His grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin all come down from Virginia. We only get to see them a few times a year, so there's always so much to catch up on. 

Where's Daddy going?

Thanksgiving is always a busy day for us, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We typically have 3 Thanksgiving dinners. We've been in this same routine for years, so it's something we didn't have to work out when we got married. Haha. We get up early and spend time with everyone, then we eat at Josh's mom's around 12ish. We go to my mom's house after that for round 2. (This is usually when Josh takes a nap.) We eat again there, hang out for a while, then go to Josh's aunt's to visit his dad's side of the family. We eat a little bit again, hang out some more, then go back to Josh's mom's. We've been doing this for years, so I have a strategy now. I just pick my favorite foods at each house and keep the portions small. Josh loads his plate down during round 1, then he picks off my plates at the other stops. He'll figure it out one day :-) This year, we weren't able to make the 3rd stop, so we just visited Josh's dad at his house on the way back to Lumberton. 

Bailey LOVED playing in the leaves at my mom's!

My favorite!

Black Friday shopping is also another tradition for us. Josh's family always goes together. I've been going with them for the past 8ish years. We get up ridiculously early and go to the Lumberton mall for Mickey Mouse snow globes and such. We go to Hardee's for breakfast and to chat a bit. After this, we go to the mall in Fayetteville. This year, we had to stop at my mom's to drop Bailey off. She was nice enough to baby sit while we were shopping. The mall in Fayetteville is usually pretty crowded (but not like the crazy Black Friday crowds you see on TV). This year, the crowd was pretty thin. There was a shooting early that morning. No one was hurt, but it still kept the crowd away. We didn't know about it until we were on our way there. We got SO much of our Christmas shopping done, so it was definitely worth one busy day. We picked up a few odds and ends for ourselves too. After we finished shopping, we met back up with the family for milkshakes at COOKOUT :-D. We stopped by my mom's house to visit with my family for a little while longer, then we left for Raleigh. 

We went to our friend Spenser's house and Bailey got to meet his dog, Abby. They got along really well. We went out Friday night and caught up with several friends. We stayed out quite a bit later than we had planned, so we didn't get much sleep before we had to get up to get ready for the tailgate! After we got ready, we dropped Bailey off at another friend's house. We made arrangements for Bailey to stay at his house and play with his dog while we were at the football game. Bailey had MUCH more energy, but they still got along very well. Then...we were off to tailgate! It was SO good to be back at our old stomping grounds! We had a great time tailgating with our friends. Our game was looking horrible during the first half. We put up a fight and ended up making a huge comeback! It was awesome! After the game, I was SO exhausted. After getting less than 5 hours of sleep 3 nights in a row, I wanted nothing more than to just sleep. Since we were going to be leaving early the next morning, we toughed it out and went to dinner since it's going to be a while before we see everyone again. Once we got back I showered and crashed. I haven't been that tired since my wedding! 

We were planning on leaving at 7am to head home. We were hoping to beat the traffic. I wasn't paying attention when I set my alarm clock. It was set for Monday-Friday only. It was after 7 when we woke up. We ended up getting on the road around 9:30. We had to make a few stops to get breakfast and gas, then we finally got on the road. I drove home this time. It's always a bit hard on me leaving, but this time was by far the hardest. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's time for the holidays? I have no clue. It was just so hard driving away. Josh asked me what was bothering me and I just started crying like a big baby. I don't know why that happens. I can talk to other people and keep a straight face. So weird. Anyway, literally right after I started crying about missing home we blew a tire. We pulled over, unloaded all our stuff and Bailey's, and changed the tire. I walked Bailey while Josh got started. Then, the car started rolling. Yup, like an idiot, I forgot to turn on the E-break. We ended up getting the spare on, but we warped our jack in the process. We were only about an hour into the trip at that point. We were searching for somewhere to get the tire changed, but we were having trouble finding a place off 85 that was open the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We kept on driving and we finally just stopped at a Wal-Mart in VA. Traffic wasn't bad at that point, but we couldn't go the speed limit since we were riding on the spare. When we finally got a new tire and got back on the road, the traffic was horrible! We ended up getting home around 5:30. That's not so bad, but we were originally planning on getting home around 1 or so. 

Once we got home, I was fine. The homesick thing works kind of different for me. While I'm here, I'm fine here. I have no desire to move back to NC in the immediate future (but I do want to end up back there eventually). It's when I'm actually there that I miss it, and just as we're leaving, I don't want to go just yet. I don't really know why that is. Josh thinks it's because I get to visit people I love and miss when we're in town. I don't have to get up and go to work, I get to hang out with friends, go to football games, and just get out of the normal routine. Maybe he's right. He always talks some since back into me and reminds me that Raleigh wouldn't be the way it is when we visit if we lived there. I know that, and I think that's why I'm in no hurry to get back. I think I just don't want the visits to end because I enjoy the break from work and home maintenance. Haha