Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. 

We usually do TG dinner at my sister's place, but this year we changed it up a bit.  My niece moved to Tennessee in the summer and was unable to come down for Thanksgiving, so it was decided that we would travel up to meet her and her fiance, and celebrate at their apartment.

There was a bit of a snafu, however.  Due to some miscommunication, as is usually the case with our family with my sis not telling plans to anyone until the last miute, I had booked us a stay at the beach for the early part of the week. The plan was that we go to the beach on Sunday, and be back on Wed, in time for any TG plans my sis may have. 

Of course, having then been told of the new plan we were left in a conundrum.

For some weeks we strugggled with the decision on where we should go. The warm beach sounded really nice and S would have fun there.  But then again it was TG and we wanted to be with family, especially since it was my niece's first time hosting TG. I was worried that S would be bored.

Finally after a lot of back and forth, we deceided to go to Tenneseee instead, and had a really wonderful time.

We left home on Wed and got there around 4pm. Traffic was really bad as expected the day before Thanksgiving. We stayed in a nice hotel that was a <5 min walk from their apartment. My sister and BIL drove seperately since everyone had differring work schedules. We all met up around 5pm and had a nice Italian dinner at a restaurant minutes from their apartment.

The next day was Thansgiving. 

After breakfast, S and I went for a stroll arund the hotel and checked out my niece's neighborhood. At around 10am, my niece walked over and took S back with her to help set up for the partty and lunch. My Mom and I got to relax a bit.  I took a nap and then went to the gym. Later we went to my neiec's and her fiance's place for lunch. Her fiance's parents also came down and my sister and BIL got to meet them for the fisrt time, as did my Mom, S and I.  

It was a nice simple lunch of soup and sanwhiches which we enjoyed while getting to know his family.

Around 3:30, we all went back to our respective hotels and S stayed back to continue to help my niece with the dinner prep. My neiec had ordered food from the HoneyBaked Ham, but was doing some additional sides of mashed potatoes, crescent rolls and roasted veggies herself. S was an enormous help and I was happy she got to hang out and bond with her cousin.

Dinner was a huge sucess with good food and company. We all slept like logs that night!

The next day, we wanted to spend doing some fun things for S. My BIL and the fiance's parents were heading home that day. We met up with them in the AM, said out goodbye's and the around 11:30am, my niece, my Mom, S and I headed to the zoo.  

It was busy but we managed to get timed tickets about 30 min after our arrival so it was not too bad. The zoo was small but really nice and we saw a bunch of kangaroos and other animals. We ate lunch at the zoo and headed back to our hotel so S could have her OIT nuts.

Then around 4:45pm we headed out to another fun evening to see an ice sculpture show at the Opry Hotel. My sister and my niece's fiance came too.  The show was VERY crowded but interesting and we had a good time. We did a riverboat ride too!

The restaurants in the hotel were booked. We decided to head back to their part of town and have dinner at a TexMex restaurant which was really nice.

Today we headed back home. Traffic was better but with a few stops for food/restroons we got back at 5:30pm.

S is out like a light and I am ready to turn in. Our cat, Lily, is happy to see us and as I write this, is snuggled under the covers with me.

Hope you had a wonderful thnaksgiving with family and friends.