We were so happy to be able to open our home and host this holiday, although it did come with a little worry about how it would all work out. When we initially sent out the blanket invite to anyone wishing to come to SC for Thanksgiving, we were so pleasantly surprised at how quickly everyone replied "yes"!
There were aerobeds everywhere there was open floor space. It didn't seem that anyone minded too much about the accommodations (although Mike did register a few complaints on the temperature that were then swapped for the night time noise level). Brendan slept in our office downstairs and his bed became named the "Ba-servatory" by day. All I know of the Ba-servatory is that it was "only for boys", located under a quilt on top of an aerobed, filled with giggles, and had STRICT operating hours. Will even got in on the fun of climbing into this new found fort with his aunt and uncles!
We set up a "cup" system where everyone was given a classy plastic Solo cup and a sharpie. Once named, the cup belonged to you and was your responsibility to clean and keep track of. We used a lot of paper plates and seating was first come first serve-we even had people sitting at the kiddie table during the week.
Our house, that normally seems roomy but cozy for us, was busting at the seams. I decided early on to put the perfect picture out of my head and let it just be. We had beds everywhere, stuff everywhere, linens everywhere. They just got pushed to the sides during the day and we worked around it. I didn't take many pictures this week. I tried to be in the moment and just breathe it all in and not worry that I was missing out on a photo op.
Jack fell into bed each night hardly able to keep his eyes open long enough to fight about it. It was awesome! Finally, we had some grown up time each night. One night we watched Jim Gaffigan Mr. Universe and the whole downstairs was filled with laughter. Brendan rolling in a fit of laughter on the floor, Caity and I with tears running down our cheeks. We talked about it over and over the next day and ended up watching it again with Chris and Theresa and Kay Kay and Bampa so that everyone was "in" on our jokes and conversation. Again, there was laughter.
Thanksgiving arrives!
After much planning and prep work, the big day arrived! We all were up early and headed out to Greenville for The Turkey Trot, 8K. Bampa stayed behind with the boys. I had been working pretty hard at getting my running mileage up to 5 miles (I typically only run about 3). I was so proud of myself for getting to 5 the week before. It was a perfect day for a run. Sunny with blue skies, 40's-50's. We stretched and joked and got ready. The race was killer-it seemed like it was ALL hills. My knee bothered me a bit, but I still finished in under an hour (my goal). My sister ran the whole race without stopping and came in at just an hour! So proud of her! Kay Kay won her age division and was the second place finisher in our group. Mike was the winner of our group in his first ever road race. In the end, we all agreed that it was a great way to start the day!!
I had planned out the meal and allotted each side dish a day to be made during the week. Theresa made a side dish and 2 desserts. The only thing left to actually make on Thanksgiving was the turkey (we cooked an extra on Wed night for leftovers), mashed potatoes and the gravy. Everything went so smoothly. Our turkey (my first bird ever!) came out great! While the bird rested we used the oven to get everything else warmed back up and then used catering trays to keep them warm. It was buffet style-serve yourself. We made one long table out of folding tables and broke out the fine china from our wedding. Kay Kay put together a center piece. It was almost 70 degrees by the afternoon so we were able to have the windows and front door open. There were many helping hands and the clean up went quickly. The boys watched football, there was wine passed around and I truly enjoyed the day! I hope we will have some visitors return next year!
On Friday, we got 2 treats! One, I got out of work at 1pm instead of 6pm! I was so happy to have the extra time with the family. Second, Tom's uncle Fred was in town at Clemson with ESPN to work at the Clemson-USC game on Saturday night. We all loaded up the cars and headed down to Clemson to get a little behind the scenes tour of the stadium and see the behind the scenes of production of the ESPN show for the game. It was an amazing experience. We saw the insides of the trucks were all the work is done, production, graphics, etc. We went up into the booth and looked down on the stadium and the field. We then got to go down on the field. The place was empty and ENORMOUS. The boys enjoyed running free on the side lines and we all snapped a few pictures with our phones of this experience. As we left the stadium there are ROTC guys beating on steel drums that have "Beat USC" painted on them (roughly a 100 year tradition). Kay Kay took Jack to see them and they let him do a few bangs on the drum. We finished the night with a little "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." Clark W. Griswold never fails to entertain.
On Saturday, we started the day with a big breakfast and ended it with a celebration for Jack's 4th birthday-complete with a Spiderman pull away cake. Chris and Theresa hit the road at about 5pm to head back to DC. Sunday came quickly and everyone else packed up to leave. The rest of the McLaughlin clan heading up to JMU together to drop off Caity and Mike and then finish their drive to RI. I sat at the computer Sunday, while Will slept and Jack played with his new birthday presents. I couldn't believe how quiet the house was. I picked up each room and although I was happy to have less stuff around, I was filled with sadness that the craziness was over. It was a true reminder of how lucky I am to be from a big family. I think everyone left this week realizing that our time together as one big group is not as frequent as it once was. We truly enjoy being together, always find something to laugh about and just seem to have fun. Thank you again to everyone for traveling to SC for our first every Thanksgiving!
(I have used up all the free space for pictures....i will try and upload some soon)
