TimandJess: Thanksgiving in Kentucky

The sunset-at this point we are almost to my hometown.

As much as we wanted to answer the question “Are you guys coming home this year?” we had to give the vague, “We don’t know.” to both mine and Tim’s families. Tim put in a request in August, I believe, and I put my name down at the end of August to be off for the holidays. Tim is still considered new and we were not sure if he would be allowed off for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. I was stressed. I wasn't sure what the best choice was. If we only got one holiday off which family to visit? I worried because I didn't want either side to feel slighted or hurt that we chose to go to one family instead of the other. In the end we found out the week before Thanksgiving that Tim would be able to go on vacation. The decision of where to go became a financial one. We couldn't afford two plane tickets that close to the holidays and driving to Ky in our gas saving Prius wouldn't be that expensive. So we chose Thanksgiving with my family and hoped to be able to spend Christmas with Tim’s.

I am so grateful that we got to go home. My grandmother loves Tim, I honestly think she would chose him over me! That’s sort of a joke, but kind of not. She thinks that he is smart and a good person. We spent several hours in the mornings with her and then a couple of hours in either the afternoon or at night depending on what else we were doing. We got to see my brother, his wife, their two kids and his grandmother (plus some other people from his side of the family, but I can’t think of their names or how they are related to him).

I was really excited to see Justin and Taylor, I haven’t seen them in about four years, my niece, Emerson, was just a baby and now she is 6! I had never met my niece Adeline, who is a doll, she is 1! We spent some time with them and my other older brother William and his wife Lisa stopped by for a little bit-they were getting ready to go to Lexington to watch the UK basketball game and we didn't get to spend nearly as much time as we would have liked with them. We were also able to go out to dinner and see Christmas lights with them. Justin and Tim got along great and I am really happy they got to meet! I am also glad that I got to see my favorite Taylor, my sister-in-law. She is more like a sister and I adore her. I have known her since I was 16 (I think). She is a great person. I am lucky to know her.

Leaving was hard, as always I never know when I will be able to go back home. I never know if it is the last time I will be able to see my grandmother. It was hard. After driving for about 14 ½ hours we made it safely home. It to longer to get home than to get there because: Dwight threw up while in the front seat (picture dog puke on Tim, in my purse and the car), it was snowing in West Virginia and traffic in Maryland. But luckily we had a safe and relatively uneventful drive.

There was plenty more that we did. We saw friends and had other interesting experiences, but this post is long enough. If you read all of it-you’re a trooper. If you just skimmed it there are some cute photos for you to take a peek at! Coming soon-Christmas in Az blog.