Thanksgiving is hands-down my favorite holiday. A day for giving thanks. Gratitude for the abundance I have been blessed with. A day for food and friends and family. We celebrate this Thanksgiving with our dear friends the Swygerts in Nashville. I am grateful for them on many levels, one of which is the ability to call them out of the blue in September and shamelessly invite ourselves to their family dinner knowing they would say “of course!”
Dan and I have been fortunate to work and pursue educational opportunities all over the world. The upside of this is that we have friends spread near and far. The downside of this is the “far” part; we seldom see friends off our beaten paths. Christmas cards and social media help bridge the distance, but its not the same as a hug and a shared meal. And so, one of the many, many blessings of this trip has been seeing our far-flung network of friends. That wasn’t an objective of the trip. The objective was family focused; spend a year with our girls seeing the parks. But as we wind our way across the country, time with friends has become an integral part of the trip.
Equally fun has been introducing the girls to some of our friends they haven’t met. I sort of anticipated these meetings being a drag for the girls – honestly what kid wants to spend hours having dinner with their parent’s friends? To my surprise and delight they seem to enjoy our friends as much as we do. Our adult friends enjoy the stories our girls tell – and the girls love to tell them. I probably should have known as much based on an exchange early in the trip. I was reading a comment on our blog but didn’t recognize the name of the person commenting. One of my girls piped up “oh she is so nice; we play dominoes with her in Costa Rica.” Turns out my girls have this extended network of their own friends in Costa Rica – women (presumably in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s) that my mom socializes with. It absolutely cracks me up when I try to picture this in my head. My 10 and 13 year old holding court with this group of retirees. And according to Ava, Hazel is quite the little domino player, besting this group at a game called Mexican Train.
I won’t recount all our wonderful friend visits in this post because the post would go on for pages, but the cover picture here deserves a story. We were in Idaho in August and had the opportunity to stay with our friends the Olivers. I have known Jane and Tom and their boys (boys being a relative term, since I am 44, I presume their “boys” are in their 40’s as well) my whole life. They are family friends – Tom and Jane knew my mom and dad well before kids arrived. The friendship started at American Airlines. My mom and Jane were both flight attendants in the late 60’s. As Jane tells it, they met in an AA training class. My mom, ever the diligent student, was sitting in front of Jane, presumably in the front of the class. It was a hot Texas day and most of the young women in the class were eagerly anticipating pool-side cocktails at the hotel après-class. The problem was my mom, valiantly paying attention and asking questions, thereby prolonging the class. Finally, Jane reached forward, pulled my mom’s ponytail and said something like “shhhh, I will explain it by the pool!” The Jane I know has always been a formidable woman – and I imagine she was formidable that day in class too. So, my mom got with the pool-side program and a friendship was born. Fast forward 50 years, we had a wonderful evening with Tom and Jane at their home in Sun Valley. And the girls learned a valuable party trick – how to balance a spoon on your nose. A classic road trip lesson for sure.
Many thanks to all of our friends for wonderful hospitality on this trip. Wishing we had taken pictures with all of you! Great dinners, hot showers and great catch-ups with our Nashville friends and family. Dinner with the Thompsons in Colorado City and the Simpson’s in Salt Lake City, both friendships formed from business school mis-adventures. Lake-side fun with Fara and family in Seattle. Elk tacos in Glacier NP with Mark and Rachel Albrecht and their friend Tess. Endless hospitality from our family, the Zeh’s of West Lafayette, IN and Muirs of Ann Arbor, MI. Dinner with Dan’s colleague Nord and his family. A sleepover with my friend Delia and her family, too many years since our internship days at Dell! An Alcoa reunion with the Vanderwoude’s of Larchmont, NY and Holliday’s of Mountain Lakes, NJ. Our girls have practically grown up with the Vanderwoude/Holliday clans. Gorgeous hospitality in NYC with Jon and Chrissy – a long way from our dorm days at Emory. Lunch with Art and family, my partner in chaos at Honeywell. Dinner with Sam and Reiss – the kids still wishing for a few more days with you! Breakfast with my cousin Rachel and her family. Too much fun during our recent Charlotte trip to properly thank our Charlotte community! And last but not least, dinner with Jennie and Kevin McKelvey in Maryville, TN. I am sure I am missing someone important – forgive me!
In closing, a picture that says it all… When we left NYC, my friend Chrissy sent me this picture of her dog Sadie. Hazel LOVES dogs. Sadie was probably the highlight of her trip to NYC. Seems Sadie and Hazel formed a quick bond – as soon as we left Sadie sadly plopped herself on the guest bed that Hazel slept in! We get it Sadie…we feel the same way each time we have to say goodbye to friends!
We are grateful for all of YOU! Happy Thanksgiving.