Thanksgiving

Well Cody, Emma, & I were quite the little travelers this Thanksgiving.  In past years Thanksgiving has always been hectic.  My family in NC always has functions on Thursday and Friday, but then Cody's extended family usually has a Christmas Party on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  But here's the catch - they're in Richmond, VA.  That's 6 hours from my family in NC.  But we've always made the trip.  Drive south to NC for a couple days, then make the drive up to Richmond for a one night family get together.  Don't get me wrong, I love visiting with all this family.  But come Monday, we're beat.

So now we're throwing an 18 month old toddler in the mix.  (Side note, we didn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving last year because Emma was young.)  Let me tell you.  It's tough - on everyone.  Emma did decent considering all the places we dragged her and all the miles she had to spend in the car.  We tried to do all the driving either during naptime or after bedtime, so she did sleep through most of it.  By the way, the only way to travel with a toddler is with a portable DVD player.  For the stints she was awake, she was content to sit and watch her movies.  But still, all that driving, all the nights not in your own bed, all the chaotic family functions, all the totally non-childproofed homes with lots of people crammed into tiny living rooms can wear even the toughest adults down - so imagine what it does to a kid.  Emma was champ to have done as good as she did.

But it got me to thinking about the olden days - I mean like way back when, like back in horse & buggy times.  When all the family lived nearby.  When going from Roanoke to West Jefferson, back to Roanoke, then to Richmond, and then back to Roanoke (in a three day span) was unheard of.  But that's when this tradition of all the family getting together for the holidays began.  But those lucky dogs had it easy.  Over the hill and through the woods, right?  Gah, I wish.

So while I was riding in the car and wishing we were just having a quiet Thanksgiving in our own home, I decided it was time for a new tradition.  At some point you gotta draw the line and decide what we (meaning Cody & I) want for our little family.  And the new tradition is, no more road warriors.  We'll probably still go to one or the other (NC or VA), but not both in the same weekend.  Maybe we'll alternate every year, I don't know, but we will never be doing what we just did again.

With that said, I do have to admit, Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without my mom's turkey & dressing, or my Aunt Jeanette's mac n cheese, or Cody's Grandma's "Dirty Santa" gift exchange.  So while this whole post has been about how hectic our Thanksgiving was, I do want to make a point that, while I was exhausted, I had a wonderful time catching up with everyone and partaking in our annual traditions.  And it was even more fun to now have Emma involved in our Thanksgiving celebrations.  Oh how I wished we all lived over the hill and through the woods from each other.  But life's just not that simple anymore and it's time for me & Cody to see the writing on the wall.  We can't be everywhere we want to be and we're going to have to miss some of our favorite holiday traditions in order to keep our sanity.  But who's to say we can't start some new traditions of our own?  After all, that's the joys of starting your own family right?

So here's to new & old traditions alike.  May you learn to live in harmony and preferably in the same state.  :)


PS - Sorry there are not more pictures.  My camera has taken a beating by my 18 month old and is no longer functional.  The one pic above is actually stolen from my mom's camera.  Guess what's on my Christmas list....