Thanksgiving Traditions

His entire body is hanging out the window and I know that there is something so very wrong about that.  Does it make me a bad parent that I am laughing so hard tears are streaming down my face as he hollers and snaps pictures?

Our annual trip to see Southern Lights on Thanksgiving night has never been boring, but this...well, this is just.  too.  much. 

I'm big on tradition.  Don't like change. I know that on Thanksgiving day, we'll all be huddled in my Mom's house, piled on the couch and loveseat and in the floor and in chairs pulled around a makeshift kitchen table in the living room.  Football will eventually make it on TV (although yesterday's favorite was the dog show.  And yes, we really watched it. "These people spend so much money on their dogs that they don't have anything left to worry about what they are wearing." Typical Kami reaction.  "Is that a comb in her hair????" Responds Alaxandra).  My plate is full of Aunt Nora's mashed potatoes and Aunt Lisa's homemade bread, banana pudding and the Clemons Clan staple, dirt cake, which can be found at any get together that we have.  Sometime, there will be a discussion about which football team was better, Breathitt's 1995-96 team (Glenn's...even though he didn't actually dress until the next year, his freshman year and my Senior year), or the 2002 (Warren's).  And then, the action will head up to my mother in law's yard, where the dogs will be driven crazy by harrowing passes and dives and rolling around on the cold for the annual Turkey Bowl.  This year, a dwindling number made the game a tad bit less exciting, but Wallace and Landry's trash talk made up for the lack of players ("I'm not trying to sound cocky," Landry said, "But I think our best option is the throw the ball to me, because Wallace just can't catch me."  And all of Wallace's training on the treadmill was for naught, because he was nothing for Landry's speed.  And Landry let him know it.)

And then, for picky eaters like me, heaven in the form of Ruby Tuesday's with the in-laws.  Baby Will made this year extra special.  He is so precious, with big blue eyes and cheeks that I could literally eat up.  A good road trip sitting in the backseat listening to Nana and Wallace.  Time spent with family is the best time,and I'm so blessed that I have not just one awesome family, but two... and that we are all so close. 

And then we made it to the horse park.  Doesn't seem like long ago we were driving through with Mom's van door open so Caleb could gaze in amazement at all of the twinkling lights, trying to identify the characters and figure out what they were all about.  Now, tonight, he is hanging out the window... and he knows what the characters are and we sing The Twelve Days of Christmas and then he starts that hollering, and the cool night air rushes in.  Wallace looks at me and winks and I'm laughing so hard that I lose my breath and Caleb says, "Well, that was fun."

And it was.