A quiet Thanksgiving week

 

To anyone out there who feels bowled over by the holiday season, I’m with you.  Bryan and I traveled to frozen Michigan to spend some time with his family before the Thanksgiving holiday.  Typically we don’t go up there in the winter (for obvious reasons) but he wanted to spend some more time with them this year.  Instead of loading Bowie and all our stuff up in the truck, we opted to fly instead of driving and got to his parents’ house on the same day, imagine that.  All kidding aside, it was a super quick and easy flight and I don’t know why we don’t do that more often.  I know Coda (his parents’ dog) missed Bowie but it went from a 17 hour road trip to a two hour flight.

When we got to Detroit, there was snow on the ground and proceeded to continue snowing the entire weekend we were up there.  In the snow, we tracked coyotes, deer, and rabbits.  Coda hunted down and killed a vole and a lone yearling wandered into the apple orchard for a mid-day snack.  Bryan’s parents kindly hosted an early Thanksgiving for the entire family and one morning his grandma taught me how she makes her pie crusts by hand.  We made a blueberry pie with a woven lattice top (no chilling the pie dough folks) and it came out beautifully.  His dad deep fried a turkey, which was super cool to observe and delish.  We ate too much, drank too much, did puzzles, and played giant Jenga on a set that Bryan’s dad made.

We then came home, Bryan went to work, and I settled in for a quiet Thanksgiving week with myself and Bowie.  I took off the entire week for work, thinking I’d be making an entire Thanksgiving dinner for my mom’s 20 guests, but was pleasantly surprised when my mom told me that my aunt would be hosting a non-traditional Thanksgiving hot pot at her house instead.  So I spent the week riding horses, reading, and wrestling with Christmas decorations around the house.  All in all, extremely peaceful and calming.

There’s plenty to be grateful of this year - everyone is healthy, happy, and gainfully employed (if not retired).  Griping has reverted back to the weather, traffic, and travel.  As we wade into the depths of Christmas time, I hope you’re able to take a timeout to breathe, relax, and reflect.