A no-travel, just-us Thanksgiving

This is the second year we haven’t traveled or hosted anyone for Thanksgiving. I’ve been offline all day and want to avoid getting too sucked into a screen, so I’ll just recap in brief, and in photos.

Despite designs on waking at 4:30, I ignored my alarm and didn’t get up until my son woke at almost 7. Being so used to watching the sun rise while doing yoga in the family room, it was odd to see our bedroom brighten while I was still in bed!

I was hoping we would all get outside as a family, so rather than exercise, I bounced for a bit and did a short yoga practice before we ate. That didn’t end until 9:00!

Then we set to work cleaning out my daughter’s “desk” and some other purging. And vacuuming.

I had wanted to got to a family yoga class at 11:00, but once we knew the weather was going to be super nice, we figured we’d want to get on bikes or take a hike. And we’d still need some time to cook dinner, even if it was just for us.

We decided around 11:30 that we’d do a snack and bike ride. It was a beautiful warm day with no breeze. We rode to a park near the kids’ school, right where we’d been for Bike and Walk to School Day on October 7, one of my favorite memories of 2015.

I used to run along this bike trail all the time before baby #2 messed up my structural mojo. I hope I can eventually get to a place where I can run again safely. The better my gut does, the better that progress will go.

I asked my husband to stay with the kids so I could walk down the path closer to the nature center, one of my favorite places to feel the grandeur of nature, with the creek and the tall trees. I took my camera and snagged a few shots to remember the day by, including a few with my long shadow.

We got home at 2:30, snacked, and started in on dinner. I picked herbs from the garden for the turrkey.

The kids played outside with some neighborhood kids for a while. The weather was fantastic!

Once the pies and turkey were in the oven, my husband was happy to say yes to our son’s request to play frisbee at the park down the street with his friend. Little sister went too, so I got to listen to All Things Considered while I cleaned the kitchen!

Things were almost done when they got back. They made a cranberry sauce and my son watched a little football while my daughter and I got out some candles. I took out the trash and snuck in a short walk around the block, enjoying the sunset and the still-balmy air.

The table was lovely aglow with flaming pumpkin, turkey and acorn and other candles the kids had decorated and food my daughter had put into odd receptacles, like a star baking dish. It was all was delicious.

It was my first time having pumpkin and turkey since last December, when my ELISA Lymphocyte Response Assay (LRA) test identified those moderate reactions and recommended at least 3 months abstinence. We’ll see how I do – it’s hard to tell now since I didn’t really have lunch and ate a huge dinner – but I’m hoping that even if I do react, other things are working better such that it won’t be so severe.

Kids were tick-checked and in bed by 8:00. Text written by 8:15 and photos added by 8:40. Good night!