Thanksgiving at Home

Sigh...Home. South Carolina. The south. My family. Greenville. Home, sweet Home.

We haven't been home since last December when we visited my family at Christmas time. My parents came to visit in April and we visited my family in Connecticut in July, so at least we were able to see my family more during the year. Needless to say, I was pretty excited about going home for Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately this school year, we had school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. That kind of wrecked travel plans. We had planned to drive so that we could take the pups and because when we looked at flights (6 months ago), they were ridiculously expensive. That meant we had to leave after I got out of school at 4 pm on Wednesday and drive as far as we could. Brad had taken Wednesday off to sleep in and run some errands, so I started the drive and drove till 10 pm, then he drove until 2 am when we stopped and got a hotel. We got up at 6 am and finally arrived at my parent's house on Thursday around 4 pm. This trip down to the south seemed to take for-ever due to traffic, accidents, construction, and stops. My mom had planned on having Thanksgiving dinner on Friday, so it actually worked out for us to take the 2 days to drive.

Thursday we spent the night with my parents relaxing and catching up. We were pretty wiped out, so the relaxing was much needed. I even got my black Friday shopping done online from the comfort of the couch. Woo! Friday, we slept in, relaxed at the house, did a little afternoon shopping, and then ate our bellies full of my Momma's amazingly delicious Thanksgiving dinner. My parents always cook 2 turkeys - my mom cooks one in the oven stuffed with Nana's stuffing and my dad smokes the other. My sister also made an apple and pumpkin pie, from scratch-yum!). Friday night the Brunner Family had Christmas! Since we won't be together on Christmas, we had Christmas early. Christmas is always glorious in the Brunner household.

Black Friday steel  /  The hubs and the princess

Saturday, we ran some "home" errands, like eating at our favorite places and stopping at a few stores, with the family and then spent the rest of the night at my sister and her husband's brand new house. Jaim and AJ built their house and moved in in September! It is gorgeous and I'm so excited for them! We ate Thanksgiving leftovers and watched Clemson hand the big game over to South Carolina. Sad, sad game. Ugh. Sunday we were on the road at 5 am and driving back to our home in Iowa. It was a long drive, but we made it home around 8:30 pm. The pups always do so well in the car and I even felt baby punching and kicking for about an hour! Brad almost got to feel it, but as soon as his hand got on my tummy, Baby stopped moving. Darn! Next time!! Overall, it was a quick and busy trip, but it was oh so worth it. I love my family and I miss them even more!!

Sunday travels!

Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving!!