Giving Thanks

(because I was preaching this sunday i didn't get a chance to post about our thanksgiving extravaganza trip to georgia and back.  so here's goes!)

j and i were both hard a work right up until we left on wednesday.  my installation as pastor at fpc lawrence was on sunday afternoon and we had family and guests with us for the weekend (which included my and carrie's birthday - and a showing of wicked) so it was all in all a very good weekend.  just a quick turn around.

i was worried about flying with ains cause she would be sitting in our laps.  we just flat couldn't afford to get her a seat (although in the future that won't be an option).  we upgraded to business class and she was incredibly well behaved for a 2 year old. i didn't even need the anxiety medicine that i brought.  :)

gramps picked us up at the airport and the weather was georgeous - but the traffic was not.  eventuallly we made it to athens and ains got to see grandma grace, aunt ruby, and grammy  (who she was the most excited to see!).

that night, james, jim, darlene and i played hearts and had some fun.  it had been a long  time since i played cards and i was never any good at hearts so I just prepared to have a good time losing (looks like living in the duplex taught me something!).  I did at one point run the table, but lost anyway.  still oodles and oodles of fun.

thanksgiving morning as we waited for uncle brian and lily to arrive from nc and aunt kelly from the atl, we decided to explore campus.  i'd never been on uga campus before and it was beautiful. the sun and the fall foliage made me miss georgia very much.  ainsley was a trooper - got her picture taken with a bulldog statue and walked all across campus.  on the way home we drove by peter buck's house - apparently darlene took piano lessons in it when she was a girl.  :)

back at grandma graces everyone was there and so we started eating.  it was very nice to be with family and to be relaxed for a while.  it was fantastic  to see kelly and to spend some time bsing and laughing.   after her nap, aunt kelly tried to teach ainsley how to roll down a hill - with limited success. but lots of fun.  

the flight home was pretty painless - hartsfield jackson was empty and the plane was pretty empty.  j slept and ains and i colored and looked out the window.  got our car, got maggie back from her dogsitters and headed home. spent saturday not writing my sermon and playing in the basement with ainsley.  fantastic holiday.