November - Thanksgiving

We had plans to visit my sister, Meg, in North Carolina. So, we tried to gather all of my mother's stuff so that we could take everything to her in one trip. Andy & I took a trip to my grandmother's shop in Denton to get mother's remaining stuff; we took Andy's dad's truck and full horse trailer. We didn't think that we would need that much space, but it was available. With the help of my grandmother and one of my uncles, we got all of her stuff out of the shop. By the time we drove away, the trailer was packed, front to back, side to side, the bed of the truck was full, and we had stuff in the back seats of the cab. It was soo much more than I expected.

Once home and unloaded, the sorting process began. As I discovered more and more things, I realized that there was no way we would be able to take everything to Meg. So, I took pictures of a bunch of dishes, furniture (and other large items) and her holiday collections. I then uploaded all of the pictures to Shutterfly. Meg and her husband, Greg, were able to look at things through the Shutterfly album. We were able to cut down stuff by at least half; it made a huge difference.

The Thursday before Thanksgiving Andy packed everything in the U-haul trailer. We woke up Friday ready to begin our trip. As we checked everything and loaded the vehicle, Andy discovered that the evening rain had leaked through a small hole in the roof of the trailer. So, he had to repack things in the trailer and wrap them in plastic to protect them should we have to drive through more rain.

Finally, we were driving away from the house, and driving....and driving...and driving. The trip took 2 full days of driving with a stop over in Birmingham, Alabama.

We enjoyed spending time with Meg, William, Teresa, and Peter. We stayed incredibly busy all week long with kids, food, parties, sorting, talking, and decorating. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner (thank heavens Meg knew how to cook a turkey; I knew nothing!). We set a beautiful table with crystal (from Mother's stuff that Meg inherited) and china (our great-grandmother's china that Meg has inherited). Here are a few pictures of our time there.

I grabbed Teresa and William for a quick hug and picture while they helped Andy get the lights ready to put on the outside of the house.

Andy and his diligent helpers preparing the strands of lights for the house

Andy, my monkey, is putting up the lights for the third-ish time. The first time there was a bit of a gap after the second or third strand; he started on fixing that before we asked him to correct it. Yes, my sister and I are both struggle with control and perfection issues...we think it's in a good way most of the time... It was great for us to be able to share some of those moments together while visiting. Thankfully, Andy was already aware of some of my tendencies and took Meg's as par for the course! The second time with the lights going up, Meg and I noticed that he hadn't started them right at the corner of the house (the one in the picture). So, he started over again.

We remembered to grab a picture of all of us right before we left. Andy is holding Peter (1.5 years). Meg is holding William (5.5 years). I am holding Teresa (3.5 years old).