We went to the In-Laws for Thanksgiving 2012.
We drove to their house on the night before Thanksgiving
because Derek was working the day after Thanksgiving and we knew that it was
best for Carder not to try to do the round trip in one day.
As per what we should
have expected (although I had hoped for the contrary), Carder fell asleep in
the car and woke up when we arrived at their house. After saying hello to the Grandparents and
Papaw, he was then super-charged with energy and ran around like a wild child
for a couple of hours before he went back to sleep. (This had me panicked that my normally happy
child would be in meltdown mode for Thanksgiving Day).
As you also would expect, Carder got up his normal time on
Thanksgiving morning as children apparently have no concept of sleeping in when
they were up late the night before.
After breakfast, Derek, Carder, Granddad, Papaw and I took a walk on the
Golf Course. We pulled Carder in a wagon
that the Grandparents bought for him.
Although Carder had dropped morning naps, walking on the
course apparently wore him out and he fell asleep in the wagon as we were
heading back. He also woke up as soon as
the wagon stopped moving and didn’t finish his nap. (This had me panicked that my normally happy
child would be in meltdown mode).
Aunt Sarah arrived around 10:30 and brought with her a
foster child that was placed with her just a couple of days beforehand. She was 6 months older than Carder and they
had a wonderful time playing together. Dinner
was scheduled for around 1. Derek’s Aunt
Vicky, her friend Mike, and Derek’s cousin Helen also joined us for
Thanksgiving dinner and got to the house around 12. Thank goodness that Helen and Vicky were
there to help prepare the meal!
We fed the kids a late snack and tried our best to push
their naptimes back so that we could all enjoy the meal together. It became obvious that the meal wouldn’t be
at 1 (and I was panicked that my normally happy child would be in meltdown mode
– noticing a trend here???). Sarah and I decided to take the kids for a
walk on the Golf Course to keep them occupied while we waited for dinner.
The kids had an absolute BLAST playing on the Golf Course
and it was a wonderful way to pass the time.
Although a bit chilly, it was a gorgeous & sunny day. We ran all over the grass (fairway? green?) and ended up returning to the house
with wet pants and smiling but exhausted kids.
Carder picked at his dinner at best and ended up going down
for a nap during the middle of dinner. I
guess you can’t have it all. At least my
normally happy child wasn’t in meltdown mode as I had feared he would be.
After he woke up from his nap, we loaded up the car and
headed home.
