Giving Thanks for a wonderful Thanksgiving

We finally got home from our wonderful trip to South Carolina for Thanksgiving. We had so much fun being together as family and making lots of lasting memories. Devin, Sarah and Eva were wonderful hosts. They put up with the whole "trasher" family for more than a week. Tom, Whitney and I arrived on Saturday, Nov. 22 (luckily we arrived at all after mechanical problems on our flight from Chicago to Washington, Dulles made us miss our connecting flight to Greenville so we got to fly US Air to Charlotte, then on to Greenville and arrived at 10 pm) and got to spend time with Eva before the rest of the family arrived on Tuesday, Nov. 25. We enjoyed going to church with Devin and Sarah and a tour of the Clemson campus on Sunday, then a beautiful drive up to Asheville, North Carolina on Monday and dinner at the Mellow Mushroom. Tuesday, Devin and Tom golfed at a beautiful golf course in Georgia while the girls spent the day shopping at Gaffney, South Carolina at a great outlet mall. We picked Taylor up in Greenville that evening and the boys drove to Atlanta and picked Sara, Jon and Lucy up. Wednesday, the whole family started the day at the Waffle house (Tom's favorite) for breakfast and then went on a picnic (my favorite thing to do) and drive up to a couple of scenic waterfalls. We enjoyed a beautiful day and sampled some of the south's famous "boiled peanuts". Thursday the boys held the Morris Open at a nearby golf course and the girls spent the day preparing food for the big feast. Our dinner went off without a hitch except for the grease fire we started in Sarah's oven when some of the turkey drippings splashed on to the oven element as we attempted to lift the 20 pound turkey out of the oven in a flimsy tin foil roasting pan. Unfortunately the smoke and flames destroyed Sarah's lovingly made croissant rolls. After dinner we had our Christmas gift exchange and Lucy opened her birthday presents. Friday the boys golfed again and the girls went into Anderson and shopped. We took Lucy and Eva to the city of Pendleton's Christmas tree lighting and saw Santa Claus and rode on a hay wagon and the boy's went to Clemson's Tiger walk. The boys babysat and the girls went to the movie Twilight on Friday night. I think we all really enjoyed it. Saturday morning Whitney flew back to Utah and Tom, Taylor, Devin, Jon and I got to go to the Clemson/South Carolina football game. It was a cold, rainy day, but that didn't seem to deter the 80,000 fans from attending and cheering their team on to victory. It was a fun experience to be there and see why Devin has developed into such a Clemson fan. Saturday night we went to an awesome Southern barbecue buffet dubbed the "the Piggy House" by Lucy. We all ate like pigs, that's for sure. Sunday morning Taylor flew back to Boise and the rest of us (minus Sarah and Eva who was home sick with a cold) went to church, then we came home and made Sunday dinner. Tom and I headed to Greenville to catch our 5:30 flight to Chicago and then on to Boise, but found out when we got there that the flight to Chicago would be delayed due to a snowstorm in Chicago and thus we would miss our connecting flight to Boise. They couldn't rebook us on a flight til Tuesday morning, so we rented another car and drove back to Clemson to spend Sunday night and Monday with Devin and Sarah. We figured that was a much better alternative than flying to Chicago and being stuck in the airport til Tuesday. We drove Sara, Jon and Lucy to Atlanta on Monday and then Tom and I spent the day touring Atlanta. We saw all the downtown sights (Turner field, Oakland cemetery, Coke World, CNN Center, Olympic Park) and had lunch at Gladys Night's restaurant, then drove to the Dekalb Farmer's Market (another of my favorite things to do), then drove to Stone Mountain. It was a cold blustery day in Atlanta but we had a great time looking around. WE took Devin and Sarah to dinner at Eddie Spaghetti on Monday night. Tuesday, Tom and I drove back to Greenville, turned the rental car in for the last time and got on our flight to Washington/Dulles, then got upgraded to business class on our flight from Washington to Denver (that's the way to fly), then arrived back in Boise at 5 pm. It was so fun being with the whole family for Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful for great kids and two of the most beautiful grand daughters in the world. WE have so much to be thankful for.