This year was David's parents' year for Thanksgiving, so we were in Georgia. We alternate each year -- one set of parents gets Thanksgiving and the other set gets Christmas. Then the next year, it swaps. Close family time is important on holidays, and this is the best way we can think of to make sure that each family gets one of the "big two" all to themselves each year. It definitely works better than the way a lot of people I know do it...fighting every year about how much time to spend with who. This way is cut and dry and fair and easy!
Anyway, David's parents live in an adorable little historic town called Madison (it was actually recently featured in an issue of Southern Living). It has a cute downtown square with an old courthouse and a bunch of little boutique-y shops, and the rest of the town is full of old antebellum homes. It is quaint and picturesque and historic like St. Augustine, but the feeling is less European and more colonial. Pictures below!
Luckily, David's grandmother and his sister and her family also live in Madison, so this trip had considerably less "across town" driving than ones in previous years (hooray). This was a VERY welcome change, especially following the horrific seven-hour drive we had to make to get there in the first place. Really, I guess it went as well as can be expected for a toddler doing a full day in a carseat...needless to say, it is only a matter of time until we get one of those headrest TVs for him to watch!
Once we got there, we hung out and ate and talked all weekend...it was slow and mellow and comfy -- exactly the way a Southern family Thanksgiving should be! One of the highlights of the weekend was when David took me into downtown Atlanta to a playhouse/pub called The Shakespeare Tavern, where we saw an awesome rendition of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and drank artsy bohemian ales. It was a fun, grown-up night out! We also got to see our good friends the Frazers (even if for only an hour or so!), and take a quick fifteen minute ride on their bike -- which, of course, got David itching for another one (don't worry, I squashed that quick!). As we drove away from his family's house, I was thinking to myself "Wow, everything on this trip went perfectly."
Well, that'll teach me to count my chickens before they've hatched. On the way home...DISASTER. Late at night, totally exhausted, baby asleep in the backseat and sixty miles from home...our tire blew out. Well, one of the tires on the trailer we were hauling to carry David's boat. These are the times when I just can't say enough about David. He calmly uttered just one expletive (as opposed to the string I probably would've let out), and maneuvered us to the next exit. Prepared as always, he had a spare trailer tire, an industrial strength jack and all the tools and skills necessary to change the tire on the side of the road in pitch black. As I stood beside the truck, rocking the baby back to sleep in the freezing cold (yes, I am such a Florida girl now that I think anything less than 60 degrees is downright frigid!), I couldn't help but think to myself "This is a real man I married!" And thank goodness...thanks to him, we were back on the road in less than ten minutes.
Other than that, the trip really did go perfectly. Thankgiving is a wonderful, distinctly American holiday, and this year I have so much to be thankful for!
Cute downtown Madison!
Little boutiques...
County courthouse
A little sweet shop where the owner was so nice to Sam that we ended up buying like two pounds of fudge.
This guy is some sort of town mascot. He just sits on a bench downtown, smoking all day and talking to everyone. He asked if I would take his picture, and - of course - I did ;)
Now here are just a few of the beautiful homes I was talking about...some of them were all decked out for Christmas already!
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