Thanksgiving in East Texas

Good grief, if I waited much longer to blog about Thanksgiving it would have to wait for the next Way Back Whens-day!

For Thanksgiving we went to Chad's mom's house. I have to tell you, the first time I went home with Chad (over 8 years ago!), I was pretty sure he had gotten lost, since we just kept driving and driving down a two lane road with nothing but trees on either side. Turns out, he wasn't lost, he's just from a very small town deep in the east Texas Piney Woods. This was our first time coming from San Antonio and we learned the hard way you cannot be anywhere near Houston after 3:00 pm unless you really enjoy sitting in traffic. It actually wasn't that bad, but was enough for me to be Thankful for the portable DVD player.

Thanksgiving was a day of good food, the cousins running around together (seven kids between 1 and 13) and watching the Cowboys game. The girls had so much fun!

Enjoying the wide open spaces... and mounds of red dirt.

Gran-San holds Elliott, who is worn out after climbing the dirt mounds.

Even Chico had some "cousins" to play with.


More playing in the dirt.

Elliott and Lucas take a break. Despite the fact that he is four months older and MUCH bigger than her, Elliott insisted on calling him "Baby."

The Newman grandkids, Thanksgiving 2008: Elliott, Abbey, Erin, Lucas and Skyler

We had decided to stop halfway on our trip home rather than spend another 7 straight hours in the car. We had even found a nice hotel that allowed pets- and had an indoor pool! After breakfast Sunday morning, the girls were pumped about swimming. (Well, Abbey was. Elliott was mostly just excited about her swimsuit.) But the pool was FREEZING!!! Apparently indoor doesn't necessarily mean heated. It was a sad ending to our trip.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving!